Catch Me When I Fall
by energeticjen
Summary: Shakarian, I promise. This story is the companion to the lyrics I wrote that are in the prologue, so there will be a relationship with Kaidan. I used him in the game just to get the Paramour achievement, but Riela Shepard will use him in her own ways. She is Paragon, Infiltrator, Spacer, War Hero. She uses a sniper most often, so Garrus will not be on her six, she'll be on his.
1. Prologue

**A/N: I wrote this song first, but it didn't assuage that burning desire of Shakarian inside me. So, this story is a companion to that. Let me know what you think, I've never written a fanfic before! BioWare owns the Mass Effect universe.**

Prologue

Catch Me When I Fall

(A Song for Garrus)

When I first met you, the galaxy faded.  
I wanted to touch you, but instead I waited.  
As strong as I am, I was too shy to be honest.  
And I was scared that you wouldn't love me.

And time went by. I fooled myself with another.  
But deep inside, I knew there was no other.  
While I was with him, I dreamed about you.  
You were so close, and yet so far away.

So I'm going to pin my heart on my sleeve  
And hope that you see  
The desire in my eyes.  
So I'm going to take the first step towards you  
And pray that you  
Will catch me when I fall.

This is who I am, and this is how I feel.  
Even when I deny it, I know this love is real.  
But I'm tired of living a lie,  
And I'm tired of walking alone.  
I just hope that you feel the same.

So I'm going to pin my heart on my sleeve  
And hope that you see  
The longing in my eyes.  
So I'm going to take the first step towards you  
And pray that you  
Will catch me when I fall.


	2. Chapter 1 - The Normandy

**A/N: BioWare owns the Mass Effect universe.**

Chapter 1

Riela Shepard sat down on her bunk in the crew quarters, exhaling a happy puff of breath. Somehow she'd managed to land the position of Executive Officer on the brand new, highly anticipated SSV Normandy SR-1, a frigate designed and built by humans and turians together. Not only that, but her commanding officer was none other than Captain David Anderson, a man whom she looked up to and tried to emulate, a man who earned the respect of all those around him, mostly through his incredible leadership skills. Now, Riela would have the chance to learn from the best. She'd had opportunities of leadership before of course, but she thought, _why stop at mediocre when excellence is possible?_

She laid back, her hands behind her head, and a small smile played about her lips. She'd joined the Alliance at eighteen, just like both her parents had done before her. And when she'd realized she'd had her name put forth as a candidate for the N-school, and had been accepted, she jumped at the chance to become one of the best, most distinguished marines in the galaxy. Now, after having completed that rigorous training, she was looking to become something even more. _This position on the Normandy is just perfect!_

She allowed herself to daydream about the future for a few minutes. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't hear the door slide open, admitting another member of the crew.

"Hey, are you new too?" The voice was deep, rich, and warm. Riela sat up quickly, startled out of her musings. The man sat down on the bunk next to hers, and looked at her with a friendly smile. He had dark wavy hair, brown eyes, and looked to be about her age. He sat his duffel on his bed beside him, while keeping eye contact with her.

"Oh, yes, I was just posted here. I thought I'd be the only one to arrive this early. I happened to be on the station when my orders came through, and since I didn't have anything better to do, I decided to just come aboard and settle in. I thought it would be a good use of my time to familiarize myself with the ship before I had to actually work on it."

"That's what I thought. It's funny I haven't seen you around before now, since we both happened to be on the station. I'm Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko." He held his hand out towards her, and she reached over and shook it warmly.

"I'm Commander Riela Shepard," she said with a smile.

His eyes widened a little. "You're the XO? I guess I should have saluted. Sorry about that, ma'am."

"No, it's fine." She waved her hand in a dismissing motion. "I'd rather get to know everyone on a more personal level. I think it makes for better teamwork, don't you?"

Kaidan ran his hand through his hair, a little embarrassed. He shifted his eyes to the floor for a moment and shrugged. "I guess so, ma'am."

"You really don't have to keep calling me 'ma'am'. Shepard's fine. I'm not one for that level of deference." She smiled warmly at Kaidan, trying to put him at ease. "I've already stowed my stuff. If you want, I'll wait for you to stow yours, and we can take our own little tour of this place. I haven't had a chance to look around yet. What do you say?" She stood up wiping her hands on her thighs, then swung her arms back and forth a little, ready to do something. Lying on her bed was nice for a minute, but she was the type of person who liked to stay busy.

"That sounds nice...Shepard." He said her name shyly, as if he wasn't sure how she would react, even though she had asked him to do so.

_I hope this guy has more guts when we get into a conflict. This is kind of ridiculous. _She shook her head at herself, knowing those thoughts were unkind. _No, that's not fair. Just b_e_cause someone is shy doesn't mean they're scared. He wouldn't have gotten this far if he couldn't fight._

They wandered around the floor they were on, checking out the mess, the battery, and the med lab. Kaidan made some comments about the fancy tech in the medical bay, saying that he didn't know much, but what he saw for biotics looked top rate. Shepard just nodded amiably. Even though she knew quite a bit about tech, at the moment she wasn't really in the mood to teach. They made their way back to the elevator, and decided to check out the lower deck.

The armory was well-equipped with all kinds of mods and modification tools, as well as plenty of extra equipment. There was a large open area for storage, exercise, and a garage section for the M35 Mako, an all-terrain vehicle for planet-side travel. Behind the elevator shaft was engineering. Inside was the Tantalus Drive Core, an experimental piece of equipment that allowed the Normandy to stay undetected for hours at a time. Riela couldn't wait to tinker around with the core and the IES stealth system, but she knew now wasn't the time. She had a quick, engaging conversation with Engineer Adams, full of terminology that Kaidan didn't even remotely understand.

_ There is so much more to our XO than meets the eye. And that part's pretty nice too._ While Shepard was busy talking, Kaidan took a moment to study the Commander. She was tall and well-muscled, with an inner strength that shone through everything she did. There was a subtle grace to her movements. Even simply shifting weight from one foot to the other was like a dance. Her ancestry was difficult to place. She had the deeply tan skin of the Middle East region, but with freckles. She had the slanted eyes of the Eastern peoples, but they were a bright emerald green. Her nose was wider than most, but not flat like those of African descent. Her mouth was full, but not overly so. Her bone structure looked vaguely Hawaiian or Samoan, with prominent cheekbones and kind of a wider, flatter face. Her hair, pulled up into a utilitarian bun, was black, thick, and shiny. In short, she was an enigma.

Shepard, oblivious to Kaidan's observation, said goodbye to Adams with a wide smile, and motioned to Kaidan to follow her back up to the crew deck. From there, they took the staircase to the upper floor, where the Combat Information Center with the galaxy map was located. They studied it briefly, touching nothing. The bridge was empty, and they wandered slowly around, looking at all the stations, and the holographic image of the Normandy floating in the air.

"I've never been on a ship before where the CIC was located at the back, instead of in the middle," said Kaidan quietly.

"That's part of the turian design. They like to be able to watch over all their subordinates, and you can't do that from the middle. I read that they wanted to see how that set up would work with a human command structure," Shepard answered.

"Well, it seems reasonable, but it's still strange."

"Mmm," Shepard said, noncommittally. She meandered down the walkway to the cockpit. She was startled to realize that the seat wasn't empty.

"Hey, greenies! Are you gawking at my baby? Aw, don't feel bad, she definitely deserves it!" The chair swung around, and Shepard locked eyes with the owner of the voice. He was scruffy, slouching, and had a decidedly insubordinate twinkle in his eye. "The name's Joker, and I'm the best damn pilot the Alliance has ever seen!"

"Well, you definitely need to work on your low self-esteem, Joker. Can't have mopey, depressed pilots under my watch!" Shepard snarked at him, shifting her hip to the right and crossing her arms, a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth.

"I'll get right on that, Commander. Who's the shadow?" he asked, leaning to look around her at Kaidan.

"I'm Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. How come you know who she is, but not who I am?"

"Because she's the XO, and you're not. Also, because she doesn't rub her rank in people's faces, _sir._"

Shepard stepped in. "Joker, that doesn't even make any sense." She shook her head and smiled at him. She continued, changing the subject. "When do you think Captain Anderson will board?"

"Oh, the Cap should join our merry band in a few hours. Don't stress, Commander, he's not so bad."

"I'll take your word for it. I think I'm going to go see if the mess is stocked with anything edible. You never can tell on Alliance vessels. You both are more than welcome to join me."

"Sorry, Commander, but I have to finish running the checks. Maybe I'll catch up with you later." Joker swung his chair back around, and started flicking his fingers through the orange holo panels.

"Well, I'll keep you company, Shepard. I'm kind of hungry myself." Kaidan turned back around and headed for the stairs.

Sitting at the mess table, they talked about their recent past missions, their skills on the battlefield, the elation of being on the Normandy, and possible upcoming missions. As other crew members filtered on board, Shepard took the time to talk to all of them in turn. She wondered privately if any turians were going to be joining them. It was a jointly built ship with Council sponsorship, after all.

Later on, as a group of personnel were chatting with them at the mess table, a voice came on over the intercom. "Commander Shepard, please report to the comm room."

"Well guys, duty calls!" She waved goodbye to the group, and walked off with a spring in her step, headed up the stairs. Behind her, everyone started talking about the new XO.

"I think she'll do a fantastic job," said Engineer Adams.

"I think she'd be fantastic to do," a young ensign cut in, waggling his eyebrows.

While some people snickered, Kaidan turned hard eyes on the insubordinate ensign. "That is your Executive Officer, Ensign Crosby. You'd do well to show her the proper respect and courtesy due, even when she's not around."

Crosby had the decency to look abashed. "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir." He ducked his head as Kaidan excused himself from the table and went to relax in the peace and quiet of his bunk. The rest continued their conversation, although talk of sexual acts with the Commander ceased.

Shepard walked through the door to the comm room, and smartly saluted Captain Anderson as he turned around to greet her. "Captain Anderson," she said.

He returned the salute. "Ah, Commander Shepard. At ease." She placed her hands respectfully behind her back, while stepping her right foot to the side. "I've heard great things about you. After only being in the military three years, while on shore leave you rallied the colonists of Elysium, led them in battle, and then single-handedly held off thousands of batarian troopers when they breached the defenses. And that's just one example of the type of soldier you are. I want you to know that I personally requested you as my XO here on the Normandy. You were made for great things, and I intend to help you get there.

"So, while you're on this ship under me, sometimes your shift will be the same as mine. Sometimes it will be the opposite of mine, and sometimes it will overlap on both sides. I want to see what you can do on your own, but I want to make sure you have the proper training to handle any kind of situation. Your schedule will be hard for a while, but I know someone who earned the Star of Terra before completing her N7 training can handle it easily. I have great faith in you, Commander."

"Sir, I don't know what to say. I had no idea-" Shepard stopped herself from rambling on like some fresh recruit. She dropped her head for a moment, then met his eyes resolutely. "Excuse me. Thank you for this opportunity, sir. I won't let you down."

"That's good to hear, Commander. Now, since the crew is not supposed to officially report for duty until 0900 tomorrow, you're free to do as you like until then. At 0900 I want you to be with me on the bridge, while I inform the crew of our next mission and the priorities. You will be free from duty after 1800. I'll send you a file later detailing your future schedule. It is subject to change at will, but I'll try to stick as close to it as I can. Do you have any questions, Commander?"

"No sir, you've made everything clear. I'll see you tomorrow at 0900, sir."

"Dismissed, Commander."

Shepard saluted Captain Anderson once more, and left the comm room.


	3. Chapter 2 - Eden Prime

**A/N: BioWare owns the Mass Effect universe. **

**To the guest who sent me a review, first of all, thank you. Secondly, this is a fan fiction, so although some things will be the same as you are used to, others will not. Thirdly, Riela is a human, and humans make bad choices sometimes, especially when emotions are involved. Fourthly, I have no idea how to do that tag-thing you mentioned. I looked for it, but I couldn't find it. Fifthly, I'm sorry I had to make my reply public, but as a guest, I can't PM you.**

**I do appreciate any feedback I get, and I think it's really awesome that people are already following this when I've only posted one chapter so far. You guys are super cool! A special shout out to Tim for being my beta last chapter, and Aimee for her advice, and the rest of the SR-3 Crew! Love you guys!**

Chapter 2

The first few days on the Normandy were a little hectic for Shepard. She stuck close to Captain Anderson's side, overseeing the operations of all parts of the vessel. This wasn't her first time on a frigate, but all the rest of them had been purely human. Being tech-savvy, she was very interested in all the turian aspects of the ship, which were brand new to her. At night, after their on-duty shift was over, they'd meet in Anderson's private quarters to discuss tactics, both on an off the battlefield. Anderson centered on honing Shepard's abilities to command a ship, including personal interaction, mediation, and the balance between on-duty authority, and off-duty friendship with the crew. He was privately surprised at her cool head and focused demeanor. He thought she had an excellent balance between calculating logic and protective compassion. But he needed to see how she reacted under pressure.

"Shepard, tomorrow we reach Rayingri in the Armstrong Nebula. There is a research facility there that has some classified data we need to pick up. However, an unidentified ship has been seen in the nearby area, and it's possible that someone is trying to get that data first. Although I can't discuss any details, I can tell you that if this information falls into the wrong hands, life could become very hard for humans on secluded colony planets. I want you to lead the away team, with Staff Lieutenant Alenko and 2nd Lieutenant Draven. Maybe this will be a routine pickup, or maybe it will turn into a firefight and rescue. Either way, I want to personally see what you can do. Have your team report to the Mako at 1000 tomorrow."

"Yes, sir."

"I think we've talked enough tonight, Commander. I look forward to your performance tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Captain." Shepard saluted, and left the cabin. Feeling excitement for the upcoming mission course through her veins, she wasn't ready to go to sleep yet. She checked her omni-tool for the time, and realized it was much later than she had thought. Everyone else but the skeleton crew on the command deck would be asleep.

_ ...Perfect!_ She thought to herself, her eyes lighting up with a mischievous fire. Riela had a secret that she didn't really feel like letting anyone know. Chances like this one were hard to come by on a tiny enclosed space with virtually no privacy. After grabbing a bottle of water from the galley, she snuck down to the cargo bay. She figured there would be someone awake in engineering, but the core was so noisy, she wasn't too worried about being discovered. She rolled out the mats that were stored along the wall, lying them down next to each other until most of the floor space was covered in a square. The mats were meant mostly for melee combat practice, but Shepard liked to use them for something else.

With the wicked glint still in her eye, she stripped off her uniform and boots, leaving her body covered only in a tank top and shorts. She folded them neatly and laid them on the weapons bench. She walked back over to the middle of the mat quietly, rolling out her neck and swinging her arms. She stretched thoroughly, paying close attention to her feet. When she felt like her muscles were warmed up sufficiently, she accessed a particular file on her omni-tool and pressed play.

The familiar old music swelled up inside her chest as her body began to flow. The particular piece was one that she had moved to countless times over the years. It was the first movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, and it was incredible to her that something 360 years old could still be so alive. She didn't just dance; her particular love was mixing ballet and gymnastics together in a seamless stream of movements. Going from graceful arabesques into handstands and walkovers, using glissade jetés and pas des chats in tumbling passes, pirouetting after back handsprings, it thrilled her to the core.

The routine Riela performed was her old faithful, the one that she came back to over and over. She'd been doing it for so long, her mind could relax and wander while her body stretched and flexed. The strong sections of the music lent themselves well to explosive leaps and flips, while the quieter melodious parts worked well with her ballet skill set. Nothing centered her more than being on the mat, her person one with the music. It was just good luck that she was able to do this the night before her first mission as XO. As the music faded, her movements came to rest. Her breathing was a little heavy, her muscles twinged in that pleasant way that came with hard work, and a smile enveloped her face.

Riela left the mat momentarily to get a drink of water, and stretched again. She opened a different file on her omni-tool, and modern wordless music with a heavy beat and a complex melody began to play. She focused on specific moves rather than a routine, practicing the same ones over and over until she was satisfied, then moving onto another. Her mind drifted back to her childhood, when she had been a little terror, running around the ships her parents were stationed on, getting into places she wasn't supposed to be, accidentally breaking some things, purposefully making others 'disappear', wreaking havoc wherever she went.

Her parents had been at their wits' end trying to contain her, because no matter what security they put on the cabin door, or who they put her with to watch her, she would eventually manage to escape, free to cause more trouble for the crew. Then one day, doing research for a school assignment on the extranet, she came across a vid of ballet from Earth. Stunned by the beauty of the dancer's movements, she watched the whole thing without even making a peep. Her parents ordered a ship-wide search, because Riela had never stayed in her room or remained quiet for so long. When they finally realized she'd been there the whole time, they were embarrassed for causing unnecessary panic among the crew. Curious as to what would keep her out of trouble for so long, they asked. Discovering a deep love of physical art in their daughter, they immediately went to enroll her with a ballet tutor on board. The best they could find was an engineer who had grown up on Earth and taken classes as a child himself.

Riela smiled as she thought about Markov, unwittingly stuck with a little six year old girl following him around while he attended to his duties. For Riela was the kind of person who, when she made a true friend, she made them for life. Even so young, she would stubbornly stick with someone she cared about, no matter how much difficulty it created. It had started off as a daily tutoring session of ballet for an hour, but once she'd gotten to know him, she became his shadow. Trailing behind him, she'd not only learned ballet, but also about engineering. Her mentorship with Markov had lasted two years, until her parents were stationed on another ship.

Riela had been used to telling friends goodbye, but Markov had been different; he'd been special. She'd cried in public over their farewell, something she'd been taught not to do. She'd broken another rule by running up to him and clinging onto him in one last desperate hug. Her parents had to drag her away, but Riela knew better than to make the deplorable scene even worse by fighting and yelling, so she went with them quietly, tears still streaming down her face.

Riela smiled fondly at the memory of Markov, and reminded herself to send him a message soon.

On the carrier, which was much larger than the cruiser they had been stationed on, there had been a real gymnasium to accommodate all the people there. Hannah Shepard had found not only someone else trained in classical ballet, but also a second crewman with impressive gymnastic ability. Riela's physical training time was increased to allow for lessons in both arts, which she loved. When mandatory early combat training started, she had discovered that her speed, reflexes, balance, strength and flexibility all surpassed those of the other students because of the years of private study. Jealous of her ability, they teased and mocked her for being a "sissy princess with pink tutus and tiaras". Hurt, but too proud to show it, Riela continued her dance and gymnastics lessons, but didn't talk about them, and kept them as secret as possible.

_ Old habits die hard,_ she thought to herself. _But people would still react the same way, thinking that because I enjoy something so graceful and beautiful, I must not be able to use a gun._ After an hour workout, Riela stopped her music, donned her uniform, put the mats away, and headed upstairs, with no one else the wiser. She entered the crew quarters briefly to grab a change of clothing, glad her bunk was the one right next to the door, then headed to the restroom to shower. She went to bed, and slept soundly until 0800 the next morning.

After Shepard woke up, she informed Kaidan of the planet-side mission, then went in search of Rosamund Draven to inform her as well. Rosamund said she was excited, but Shepard could tell she also had some trepidation. She did her best to put the lieutenant at ease, and then went in search of breakfast. Alliance rations being what they were, breakfast was quick and boring. Shepard went back to her bunk to put her underarmour on, then headed down to the lower deck to check over the Mako one last time. She was skilled in tech, but not in mechanics. Since the Mako had never been used before, she trusted it would work, but inspecting it put her at ease.

She went over to the armory lockers and started the slow process of acquiring an impenetrable outer layer. Her armour, the Mantis line from Hahne-Kedar, was lighter than most of the others there, since she relied on her skills of stealth and speed, rather than just barreling down the field towards enemies and taking them out with brute strength. As a commander, she liked to be closer to the rear of the fighting to better direct her troops, since she could see more of the enemies and the layout of the land. But just because she was in the back, it didn't mean that she stayed safe and out of danger. _It__'s not __like __I'm __up in a tree, or __I've __never killed anyone. No, __I stay to the__ rear, but __I'm __not left behind._

With her armour assembled, she clunked over to the weapons bench to do a last check of her two rifles and her pistol, all from Hahne-Kedar as well. She disassembled her Avenger sniper, inspected it, and put it back together, then she did the same thing with her Lancer assault rifle and her Kessler pistol. Just as she was finishing, Alenko and Draven came down the elevator together, both in their underarmour.

"Hey, Commander. You ready to take the Mako for a little spin?" asked Draven. "With six wheels, a mass accelerator cannon, and that machine gun, it looks like it'll be a fun ride, eh Alenko?" she said as she nudged Kaidan with her elbow.

"Hopefully, it will be better than the Grizzlies the rest of the Alliance still uses. Those things have no shocks to speak of," Alenko answered, looking a little pale.

"All I know is, I'm driving!" Shepard exclaimed with a wide grin. "You guys suit up, there's not a lot of time left. I'm going to go tinker with the insides."

The mission did indeed turn into a firefight and rescue. Shortly after the Mako landed on the surface, a shuttle bearing unknown symbols touched down nearby. Shepard, wary because of the warning Captain Anderson had given her, but disliking the "shoot first, ask questions later" mantra, directed her team behind cover to observe only. When humans in full armor, with the same unknown symbol emblazoned on the chest piece, armed with readied weapons poured out, her anxiety increased. The last thing she wanted was one of her team to get injured, or worse, the scientists inside to wind up dead. She removed her sniper from her back, and observed the unfamiliar soldiers through the powerful scope. As she watched, they noted the Mako, and then Shepard and her team. After one of them fired at Alenko, Shepard took him out with a well-placed bullet between the eyes.

"Alenko! Flank them on the left! Draven, go right!" Shepard directed.

"Ma'am!" they said together, and then split to follow the orders.

"Alenko, if you can Throw some of them into the others to knock them off their feet, do that, but don't push them out of our firing range. Draven, I want you to focus on injuring one to take alive. I don't recognize their emblem, and I'd like one for questioning. When you get one down, I need you to get in there and drag them to safety. But don't put yourself in unnecessary danger, got me?"

"Yes, ma'am!" said Draven, readying her pistol.

"I'm going to focus on the ones that Alenko uses his biotics on, so I don't kill the one you're trying to keep alive."

The team worked well together, following the plan that Shepard laid out. Some of the enemy soldiers made it inside the research base, but the rest were taken down quickly. Draven managed to single one out that was trying to circle around them, and took him down with some well-placed bullets to the knees. She checked her surroundings, then ran over to disarm him. Dragging him to safety was unnecessary though, because by that time the rest were dead.

"Status?" yelled Shepard, as she ran towards the downed man.

"No injury!" said Alenko.

"Fine!" answered Draven. Shepard removed the soldier's helmet, uncovering a sweaty, pain-lined, angry face.

"Who do you work for?" she demanded. The man just spit at her. She kicked him in the ribs, and asked again. "I said, who do you work for?"

"Fuck off, bitch! I'm not telling you anything!" he snarled. Kaidan stepped forward, ready to attack, but Shepard put her hand out, blocking him.

"Let's try a different question. What are you doing here?"

"You're not getting any information out of me!" Then the soldier appeared to clench his jaw together tightly, and fell over dead.

"Cyanide capsule in one of his teeth," observed Draven. Shepard sighed.

"Let's go, we're wasting time. Those researchers are in danger."

Shepard led her team into the base, searching every room thoroughly, but they were all empty. It looked as if work had been interrupted, some terminals still running, papers scattered on the floor. At the back of the complex, she came to the place where the rest of the soldiers were holding the scientists hostage, while others rifled through papers and data pads, and tore out stuff from drawers and lockers. As soon as the door opened, Shepard focused her scope on one guarding the civilians, and took him out with a shot through the back of the head. Alenko shot the other with his pistol until he dropped, then put a Barrier up around himself and the scientists, protecting them from stray bullets. Draven and Shepard ducked behind some equipment for cover, and took out the rest of the opposition quickly. These soldiers appeared to have better aim than the ones outside, but none of their fire made it through Shepard's shields. She walked the perimeter, checking to make sure no other soldiers were hiding, and shooting any on the floor that might still be alive. She nodded to Alenko, who dropped his Barrier. As she walked up to the researchers, she put away her rifle, and held out a hand to help them up off the ground.

"Is everyone alright? I have medi-gel if anyone's injured," said Shepard.

"No, I think we're alright. Maybe a few bruises, nothing major. I guess they were told to take us alive if possible," answered one of the scientists, the leader by the looks of him.

"We're from the Alliance. Captain Anderson sent us to collect some sensitive data you have?"

"Ah, yes, okay. Hmm, okay, yes..." The head scientist seemed flustered, starting to walk in one direction, then stopping, turning around and walking in the opposite, stopping, putting one hand on his forehead, looking around confusedly. "Ah ha!" he said, pointing at something and rushing over to the console. Shepard watched him impassively, understanding that the unwanted operatives had disturbed and ravaged the work space. "Here it is! Yes, I'll just download it onto this data pad, encrypted of course, and you can give it to Captain Anderson. Thank you, by the way, for saving us from those Cerberus bastards."

"Cerberus? Is that an organization? I've never heard of it before."

"Oh yeah, they're a humans-above-all-others kind of group. Nothing matters more to them than advancing the human race. Nothing, you understand. By any means necessary." He nodded matter-of-factly. "Nasty group. Immoral."

"I heard they used to be part of the Alliance, but they split off," piped up one of the other scientists. "I don't know how true that is, though."

"I'll look into it," said Shepard. "If they're as dangerous as you say, more people should be aware of them and what they're capable of." The head scientist walked over to her and handed her the data pad. "Thank you for the information, and the data," Shepard said. "Is there anything I can do for you before we leave?"

"No, I think we're good here. We normally don't discover something so potentially life-altering, our research is usually quite tame. Thank you for your concern, have a good trip back." The scientist turned abruptly away and began picking up the strewn paper and data pads on the floor, his one-track mind focused on the next task. Shepard looked at Alenko and Draven, shrugged, and headed back to the Mako. Outside, she radioed Joker for pick up.

The next couple of months went by smoothly. Missions planet-side were fairly routine, picking up more important scientific data from researchers, stopping pirates and slave-traders, uncovering black market deals. Captain Anderson was true to his word regarding Shepard's schedule. On days of travel between missions, she mostly worked the quiet night shift, inspecting and running checks on different parts of the ship. On days where there were missions, or prep for missions, she kept the same schedule as the Captain, following him around and discussing pertinent tactics in detail. Occasionally, her shift was half and half, but that was pretty rare.

On her off time, she tried to research Cerberus, but found little concrete data, and Captain Anderson wasn't free to tell her much more than she already knew. She also managed to sneak in a few more of her specialized workouts without anyone discovering them, and Riela became closer friends with some of the crew, namely Joker, Kaidan, Rosamund, and Karin Chakwas, the resident doctor.

After stopping at the Citadel, where the seat of the Council and the embassies of the races were located, the crew took a little shore leave, and a turian came aboard. When Shepard returned to the ship after a pleasant stroll around the Presidium, she heard about Nihlus from Joker, who stated his opinion that he was trouble because he was a Spectre, and that he didn't like him. Shepard, who had been waiting months to finally talk to a turian face to face, kept her excitement to herself. After tracking him down to the comm room, Shepard proceeded to introduce herself to the tall, armoured alien with white tribal designs painted all over his face, from the tips of his mandibles to the tips of the spikes that stuck out from the back of his head.

_ Colony marks,_ she told herself, studying them discreetly. "Hello, I'm Commander Shepard," she said warmly.

"Yes, I know. I'm Nihlus Kryik, a Council Spectre. I'm here to oversee the stealth systems test. We appreciate the Alliance waiting before using the Normandy's full capabilities until I could come aboard. I was... occupied with another mission longer than I had originally anticipated."

"I have to say, Nihlus, that I'm very excited to see the system in action. I've been talking with Engineer Adams about it, and we're both amazed at the scientific discoveries that led to its existence. Honestly, I'm amazed by a lot of things I see on the Normandy. I think building a ship cooperatively between our two races was a genius idea, and I hope the future holds more of the same."

Nihlus paused for just a moment before responding, "As do I, Commander."

Just then, the door whooshed open and Captain Anderson stepped through. "Ah, I'm glad you're both here and acquainted with each other. We have our next orders, Commander. Nihlus already knows about them, it's part of why he's here. We need to make a covert pick up from Eden Prime, and the stealth systems test is mostly just a cover. A research team there unearthed a Prothean beacon of some sort, and we need to get it for the Council before it falls into the wrong hands."

"I thought the Protheans vanished 50,000 years ago, and nobody knows why," said Shepard.

Nihlus answered, "Their legacy still remains. The mass relays, the Citadel, our ship drives- it's all based on Prothean technology. Galactic civilization wouldn't exist without them. We owe them a great debt."

"This is big, Shepard. The last time humanity made a discovery like this, it jumped our technology forward two hundred years," said Anderson. "But Eden Prime doesn't have the facilities to handle something like this. We need to bring the beacon back to the Citadel for proper study."

"Obviously this goes beyond mere human interest, Commander. This discovery could affect every species in Council space." Nihlus looked stern as he talked, like he was trying to impress upon her how important the other races were. It wasn't necessary; Shepard already agreed with the ideal of alien equality. But she could understand his concern, with people like Navigator Pressley and Joker around.

"Sharing that beacon will improve relations with the Council. Plus, we need their scientific expertise. They know more about the Protheans than we do," stated Anderson.

"The Normandy and the beacon are not the only reasons that I'm here, Commander," said Nihlus as he stepped forward.

"Nihlus wants to see you in action, Commander. He's here to evaluate you," explained Anderson.

"Evaluate me? For what, exactly?" asked Shepard, crossing her arms and shifting her hip to the side.

"For Spectre status. The Alliance has been pushing for this for a long time. Humanity wants a larger role in shaping interstellar policy. We want more say with the Citadel Council. The Spectres represent the Council's power and authority. If they accept a human into their ranks, it shows how far the Alliance has come."

"You held off an enemy assault during the Blitz single-handed. You showed not only courage, but also incredible skill," said Nihlus, sounding impressed. "That's why I put your name forward as a candidate for the Spectres." Now it was Shepard's turn to be impressed. A stranger, a turian even, had suggested _her_ to be a Spectre? Even though the First Contact War with the turians had been resolved almost thirty years ago, relations between the two races were still a little strained.

"Why would a turian want a human in the Spectres?" she asked incredulously.

"Not all turians resent humanity. Some of us see the potential of your species. We see what you have to offer to the rest of the galaxy... and to the Spectres. We are an elite group. It's rare to find an individual with the skills we seek. I don't care that you're human, Shepard. I only care that you can do the job."

She turned to the Captain. "I assume this is good for the Alliance." It was a statement, not a question.

"Earth needs this, Shepard. We're counting on you."

"I need to see your skills for myself, Commander. Eden Prime will be the first of several missions together," said Nihlus.

"You'll be in charge of the ground team. Secure the beacon and get it onto the ship ASAP. Nihlus will accompany you to observe the mission. We can't let it fall into the wrong hands."

"Like who, Captain?"

"The Attican Traverse, where Eden Prime is located, isn't the most stable sector of Citadel space. There are plenty of raiders and criminal groups active in the region. They might figure a Prothean beacon is worth the risk of attacking an Alliance ship. Plus, Eden Prime is right on the border of the Terminus Systems."

"The Attican Traverse is under Citadel protection. If the Terminus Systems attack, it's an act of war," reasoned Shepard.

"Technically, yes," said Nihlus. "But some of the species in the Terminus might be willing to start a war over this."

"The last thing the Council wants is to get dragged into a major conflict with the Terminus Systems. We have to keep this low-key," said Anderson.

"What can you tell me about Eden Prime?" Shepard asked.

"It's a peaceful farming world, but it represents something much bigger. Eden Prime is one of our oldest and most successful colonies. It proved we were ready to face the challenges of settling new worlds, to forge a place for humanity beyond Earth. It symbolizes humanity's growth and evolution as a spacefaring species. And after this, it will be known as the world where humans made a discovery of galactic importance."

"I understand, Captain. Let me know when we get there."

"Will do, Commander. You're dismissed."

After everyone returned from shore leave, Joker jumped the ship through the mass relay next to the Citadel, and took them to the Utopia solar system in the Exodus Cluster where Eden Prime was.

"Commander Shepard, Spectre Nihlus, please report to the comm room," said Captain Anderson over the intercom. When they both had arrived, he continued, "We should be getting close to Eden-"

"Captain! We've got a problem," Joker cut in over the comm.

"What's wrong, Joker?" Anderson asked.

"Transmission from Eden Prime, sir. You'd better see this."

"Bring it up on screen." The screen in the comm room came to life, shakily showing Alliance soldiers being shot at by lasers from an unknown source. One Alliance soldier in white ran towards the camera yelling, "Get down!" and then she shoved the cameraman down. More jerky camera footage showed soldiers firing at enemies obscured by smoke, and getting taken down by laser fire. The voice of an officer came through.

"We are under attack! Taking heavy casualties. I repeat: heavy casualties! We can't-" a blast was all that could be heard for a moment, but the voice continued, the camera now focused on the owner. "-eed evac! They came out of nowhere. We need-" The unfortunate soldier was blown backwards, and didn't get up. The camera swung up and around, trying to catch something in the sky. A strange, deep, mechanical thrumming could be heard, vibrating in Shepard's chest, even over a video feed. Through the jumbled camera shots and smoke, an alien ship with strange, finger-like appendages on the bottom came down out of the sky, red lightning crawling over it, and took out the soldiers with well-placed blue laser fire. The camera cut to grey static.

Joker's voice came back on over the intercom. "Everything cuts out after that. No comm traffic at all. Just goes dead. There's nothing."

"Reverse and hold at 38.5," said Captain Anderson coolly. The vid played backwards for a moment, and then stopped on the image of the alien vessel. The three of them just stared in silence for a moment, wondering what it could possibly be.

"Status report!" yelled Anderson.

"Seventeen minutes out, Captain. No other Alliance ships in the area," answered Joker.

"Take us in, Joker, fast and quiet. This mission just got a lot more complicated." Captain Anderson looked over at Shepard, then at Nihlus.

Nihlus replied, "A small strike team can move quickly without drawing attention. It's our best chance to secure the beacon."

_I don't care who you are, I don't care where you came from. If you attack innocent civilians on a peaceful colony just for some ancient artifact, I will end you myself,_ thought Shepard, glaring at the frozen picture of the ship.

"Grab your gear, and meet us in the cargo hold," said Anderson to Nihlus. Then he turned to Shepard and said, "Tell Alenko and Jenkins to suit up, Commander. You're going in."

She took one more long look at the screen and then saluted. "Aye aye, Captain."

In the cargo bay, Captain Anderson gave some final orders to the team. "Your team's the muscle of this operation. Go in heavy and head straight for the dig site."

"What about survivors, Captain?" asked Alenko.

"Helping survivors is a secondary objective. The beacon's your top priority."

Joker's voice came on, "Approaching drop point one." Nihlus checked his weapon, nodded to the Captain, then went running to the open bay door.

"Nihlus will scout out ahead. He'll feed you status reports throughout the mission; otherwise, I want radio silence," explained Anderson.

"We've got this, Captain," said Shepard firmly.

"The mission's yours now, Shepard. Good luck!"

"We are approaching drop point two," said Joker.

On the ground, Shepard observed her surroundings. In the distance, some large towers thrust high above the land. She headed towards them, staying on high alert for hostiles. Strange creatures Jenkins called gas bags and said were sheep-like, wandered aimlessly around, oblivious to the dead bodies on the grass. Up a hill and around some rocks, Shepard signaled for a halt. The area looked clear, so she signaled to Jenkins to take point. She figured he'd know his way around better, since he had grown up on Eden Prime. As he made his way up the hill, two drones of unknown make and model fired those same blue lasers at Jenkins. Taken unaware, he screamed and fell to the ground. Shepard and Alenko immediately sprang into action, taking cover behind some rocks and firing at the drones. After they were down, Shepard rushed over to Jenkins.

Alenko got to him first, and solemnly closed Jenkins' eyes. "They ripped right through his shields, he never had a chance." His voice was shaky, and he seemed disturbed. Shepard put her hand on his shoulder in comfort.

"It never gets easier, Alenko. We'll make sure he receives a proper burial after the mission, but right now we need to stay focused." His sad eyes met her determined ones.

"Aye, ma'am."

As they continued their way up the hill, more drones appeared. Shepard and Alenko took them out easily, anger at Jenkins' sudden death making them more focused.

Nihlus came over the radio informing them of burned out buildings and lots of dead bodies at the settlement. He told them he was going to investigate, and meet up with them at the dig site. At the top of a rise, they saw a woman in white and pink (_Pink?_ thought Shepard) Alliance armour take out some drones that were following her. Farther on ahead, they saw as two synthetic beings forced a colonist to bend backwards over a strange three-legged device. As all three of them watched, a giant metal spike shot up through the man, suspending him in the air as he died. Then the droids turned to attack the lone soldier. Shepard readied her sniper, took a calming breath, focused, and shot one through the large light that was where a face would have been, while Alenko and the soldier took down the other together. Shepard ran down to check on the soldier.

"Thanks for your help. I didn't think I was going to make it," said the stranger. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212, ma'am. I'm the only one of my squad left. We tried to circle back to the beacon, but we walked into a geth ambush."

"Geth? They haven't been seen on this side of the Perseus Veil in two hundred years," said Alenko incredulously.

Ashley shrugged. "They must be after the beacon. It's just over that rise, if it's still there."

"I think you should come with us," Shepard said. "You're at least a little familiar with this place."

"Aye, Commander," answered Ashley.

They headed forward, passing more of those disturbing spikes, and took cover while taking down enemy geth. When they reached the dig site, it was empty. Unsure of who took the beacon, they decided to continue onto the research camp to check there. Just as Shepard was wondering where Nihlus was, he radioed in to say that there was a small spaceport he was going to check out, and he would wait for them there.

The team continued up the hill to the camp, which was strewn with dead bodies, civilians and soldiers alike. Some buildings were on fire, places had been destroyed, and there were more of those grotesque spikes, with bodies dangling from them, looking like sacrifices to the sky. Something was strange about the corpses, though. They looked like they were glowing with blue light. Just as Shepard squinted her eyes to get a better look, the spikes retracted back into their bases, and the corpses began to run towards her and her team. It looked like glowing blue wires had replaced their veins or tendons, running all through their bodies, their eye sockets beaming the same blue light. They were a horrifying mix of cybernetics and cadavers. However, they went down easily.

_ I guess being dead already makes it easier to kill them the second time around, _Shepard thought with a smirk. "Well, now we know what the spikes are for," she said out loud. Dark humor coloured her voice while her mind was avoiding the disturbing truth, focused on the mission. They found a few survivors hiding in some sheds, and told them it was safe to come out. Shepard discovered that the beacon had been moved to the spaceport that morning, so that's where they headed next. As they left the camp, the giant alien ship from the vid rose from the ground, crackling with red lightning. Red smoke poured out of the bottom as it lifted into the air and disappeared into the atmosphere. The spaceport was just down the hill, but it was crawling with more of those husks and geth. Shepard, with her sniper rifle, stayed on the higher ground to take them out, but Alenko and Ashley got in closer to use their pistols and assault rifles. The fight was tough, with husks running around and geth shooting high-powered lasers, but eventually all enemies were eliminated. Shepard noted to herself that Ashley was a good shot, and stayed focused under pressure.

Shepard investigated the surrounding area, and discovered some farmers hiding in a very large crate. She freed them, and continued on her way. At the spaceport, she came across the body of Nihlus. He'd been shot in the back of the head. Shepard stared down at the turian in disbelief. She'd hoped to become friends with the alien, to understand his species on a deeper, more personal level. But more than that, what would this do to her Spectre candidacy? Apparently, the reputation of the whole Alliance was riding on her to prove to the Council that she was worthy, and here was her observer, a Spectre himself, dead on their first mission together, on a _human_ colony world. And this wasn't even the first death on this mission she was supposed to be leading.

_ This is just fucking great. What is the Council going to say? What is the _Captain_ going to say? I knew him going off by himself was a bad idea, __that's why we send teams of at least three! What was he thinking, running off alone? Too good to work along side some humans? Wanted to prove he was so tough and mighty? Wanted to prove he was better than us? Than me? How was he supposed to evaluate me, when he wasn't even with me? _The guilt and blame circled around in her head, making her defensive and angry. _I hope this doesn't get blamed on me. I wasn't with him, and it was his choice to work alone, not mine._

Suddenly Ashley yelled out, "Something's moving behind those crates!"

They all trained their weapons as a scared little man came out from behind the boxes. It turned out that he witnessed the murder of Nihlus by another turian Spectre named Saren. He said that Nihlus obviously felt safe around the guy, because he turned his back on him while talking. That was when Saren took the shot, and then left by train to the other spaceport. Shepard inwardly sighed, and then headed towards the train, motioning for her team to follow.

Before they could board, three very large geth started coming towards them. "Take cover!" Shepard yelled, ducking behind a low wall. "Alenko, use your Throw! I don't want them getting too close, those are _big_! Williams, aim for the left, I'll aim right! Whoever finishes first gets the third one!"

"Aye aye, Commander!" Williams answered, already firing her assault rifle. Shepard calmed her breathing, held the scope to her eye, focused, and squeezed the trigger. The shot was good, but didn't stop the advancing geth. It aimed it's rocket launcher at her position, and fired. Shepard ducked behind cover at the last minute, then popped back up to take another shot. This one must have gotten through its shields, because the geth started to spark, and then fell over unmoving.

Shepard took a moment to check on her team. Williams was alright, firing on a geth as it flew backwards, pushed by Alenko's Throw. He seemed to be fine too, but as soon as she thought that, a rocket impacted right next to him.

"Alenko!" she screamed. _No, no, no no no! Not another's blood on my hands!_ she thought as she ran towards him. "Williams, stay focused on those geth! I'm checking on Alenko. Yell if you need help!"

"I'm find, Commander, only this one left," she grunted, blasting the trooper with her shotgun. "Get to Alenko!"

Shepard bent over Alenko's sprawled form, turning him over to assess the damage. The right side of his armour seemed pretty beaten up, but still intact. "Alenko!" she yelled. "Alenko, status report!" She hoped sticking to military jargon would more quickly bring him around. It seemed to work as his helmeted head rolled side to side and a moan escaped his lips. He tried to sit up, and Shepard helped support him until he was steady. "Sorry, Commander. I was too focused on that one near Williams to notice the rocket. That was stupid."

"As long as you're alright, I'll let it slide this time," she said with a smirk. "C'mon, try to stand. Your suit should have already released medi-gel for your wounds. You'll be fine in a minute." She wrapped an arm around his torso and helped drag him up to stand. Once on his feet, he seemed to find his balance more easily.

"Let's go get that beacon," Alenko said with renewed strength.

At the other spaceport platform, Saren was kind enough to leave behind bombs for them to track down and defuse, and more geth to harry them while they tried. As they reached the first explosive, Shepard studied it and said, "Alenko, Williams, I need you guys to cover me while I deactivate these bombs. We've only got five minutes before the whole colony is wiped off the face of this planet. Alenko, no more injuries, you've used up all your free passes this mission."

"Understood," he answered seriously. While Shepard disabled the one at her feet, and then tracked down the other three bombs and disarmed them, her team covered her so well, her shields never even fizzled to signal they'd been hit. Walking around a corner and down some stairs, more geth and husks greeted them.

"Boring!" said Williams, taking out the husks with her shotgun. Shepard grinned as she sniped the geth from the top of the stairs, while Alenko Threw them back. Shepard had been working with Alenko on ground missions for a few months now, but Williams was brand new to her team. _She's a good addition,_ Shepard thought. _I wonder where she'll be stationed since she's a sole survivor. Maybe I can request to have her on the Normandy._

The beacon rose above them, an obelisk of ancient times. Glowing green mist feathered out from the top half. Shepard radioed Joker for a pick up, half-listening to Alenko and Williams discuss the beacon. As Williams walked up to her, Shepard looked past to see Alenko being dragged by some invisible force towards the beacon. She shoved by Williams, dashing towards Alenko for the second time on this mission. She grabbed him around the waist with both arms, and flung him out of the reach of the pull, sacrificing herself to its desires. It was so strong that Shepard ended up held in the air, ominously reminiscent of the husks on their spikes. Disjointed images flashed through her brain. Mechanical beings, organic ones screaming, blood, fire, destruction. Nothing was recognizable but the terror and fear. And then everything went dark.

**A/N: Yeah, I love ballet and gymnastics, but I don't actually know that much terminology. I had to do quite a bit of research for just the tiny bit I actually mentioned. I'm hoping to put more of her routines in the story, so if anyone out there is more knowledgeable, please PM me so they can be accurate, believable, and beautiful! Also, it's been ten years since French class, so if I improperly pluralized any of those words, sorry. Let me know! Love you guys!**


	4. Chapter 3 - The Citadel

**A/N: This chapter is incredibly long, which is why it took so long to write. I hope the rest of them aren't like this! I am submitting this sans beta (again), so any mistakes you find, forgive me and then let me know what they are! I would love to hear your opinions and advice; reviews and PMs are always welcome! BioWare owns the Mass Effect universe.**

Chapter 3

When Shepard woke up, she was in the medbay on the Normandy. Kaidan was hovering over her, a worried frown on his face. "Dr. Chakwas, I think she's waking up."

Shepard sat up slowly, a hand holding her throbbing head. "What happened?" she asked groggily.

"I guess I got too close to the beacon and triggered something. You had to push me out of the way. I'm sorry, Commander," Kaidan answered, hanging his head.

"And the beacon? Did we get it?"

"No, Commander. It overloaded or something. The blast knocked you out, and Ashley and I had to carry you back here."

"Thanks, Kaidan. How long was I out?"

"Fifteen hours, Shepard," Dr. Chakwas said, stepping forward. "You're fine physically, but I noticed some unusual readings in your beta waves, and your REM was radically increased. That's usually a sign of intense dreaming,"

"Yeah, it wasn't a dream." Shepard shook her head, as if trying to clear it. "It was a... vision. But it didn't make any sense. Just death and destruction."

The medbay door opened, and Captain Anderson walked in. Shepard tried to stand and salute, but the Captain waved her down. "At ease, Commander. I heard you had quite an ordeal. How is she, doctor?"

"She's fit for active duty, Captain. I've released her."

"Good. I need to speak with the Commander privately."

"Aye aye, Captain. I'll be in the mess if you need me," said Kaidan. He and Dr. Chakwas left the medbay. Shepard felt her stomach tie in knots, clenching at the thought of the berating she was about to receive. She let none of that show, composing her face into an unreadable mask.

"Sounds like the beacon hit you pretty hard, Commander. Are you sure you're alright?" The concern in Anderson's voice was not what she had been expecting.

"Other than this headache, I'm fine physically, sir. I'm just upset that the mission went so badly. It was a complete failure. Jenkins died, Nihlus was murdered, Saren escaped, the colony was wiped out, and the beacon was destroyed. I know it was mostly my fault, I was leading the operation, but we walked into a situation we weren't prepared for. I can't remember the last time one of my assignments failed so miserably, Captain."

"None of that was your fault, Shepard. You did everything in your power to accomplish your mission. The geth haven't been seen on this side of the Veil in over two hundred years, long before humans were using the mass relays. Nobody could have predicted what happened."

Shepard sighed, partially in defeat, partially in relief. "What happened to Chief Gunnery Williams? She didn't get left on Eden Prime, did she, sir?"

"No, I reassigned her to the Normandy. Alenko recommended her."

"She's good, I'm glad to have her as part of our team. What did you need to talk to me privately about, Captain?"

"First, the Council's going to want answers. Like you said, the mission went to hell. I'll stand behind you and your report; you're a hero in my eyes. Secondly, Saren. He's a Spectre, a legend, but if he's working with the geth, that means he's gone rogue. He's dangerous, and he hates humans. Did you see or hear anything down there that might give us a clue as to why he's working with the geth or why he was interested in the beacon?"

"No, sir. Nothing to do with Saren. All I saw was... a vision. From the beacon." She crossed her arms, hugging herself, shivering at the remembrance.

"A vision? What did you see?"

"Synthetics, maybe geth, slaughtering organics. Butchering them."

"We need to report this to the Council."

Shepard snorted. "What are we going to tell them? I had a bad dream? No one's going to believe that the beacon gave me visions."

"Who knows what kind of information was stored on that device. Weapons technology, blueprints, medical breakthroughs. Whatever was on there, Saren has it now, and he's going to use it and his geth army to wipe out humanity, I know it!" Anderson smacked his fist into his palm. "He believes humans are a blight on the galaxy. He's dangerous, and we need to find a way to stop him. He almost blew up a whole human colony just to cover his tracks. If he's gone this far, he'll stop for nothing. But he's a Council Spectre, which means he can go anywhere, do almost anything. We need the Council on our side."

"We need to convince them that he's gone rogue. Then they'll revoke his Spectre status."

"Yes. I'll contact the ambassador, and see if he can get us a meeting with the Council. He'll want to see us as soon as we get to the Citadel, which will be soon."

"Understood, Captain."

"I'll see you then, Shepard."

Anderson turned smartly, and left the medbay. Shepard slowly got to her feet, groaning a little as she stretched her back, then her shoulders as she lifted her arms above her head. She looked down at herself, assessing. She was in her underarmour, which was undamaged, but stiff with sweat. She wrinkled her nose at her condition. As she headed out of the medbay to grab a shower, she saw both Kaidan and Ashley wandering around the mess dejectedly. _First things first_, she said to herself. She made her way over to Ashley, who had a worried look in her eyes when she met Shepard's gaze.

"Hey, Ashley."

"Hey, Commander. Are you alright? That beacon mess was crazy, ma'am."

"You can skip the 'ma'am', Ashley. Shepard's just fine with me." She gave the woman a warm, if worn, smile. "I have a pretty nasty headache, and I smell delightful, but nothing a shower, some food, and more sleep won't cure. How are you holding up?"

Ashley looked down and shrugged. "I don't know, Shepard. I've seen soldiers killed before, of course, but a whole platoon? And all those civilians..." her voice faded off for a moment, her eyes lost in memory. She shook her head slowly, "It just isn't right. We sign up for it, we know what we're getting ourselves into. We know how it might end. But them? We're supposed to protect them. I failed, Shepard. My whole team died doing their job, all those people died, but I'm up here on the Normandy. It's like I got a promotion because of their deaths."

Shepard placed a hand on Ashley's shoulder. "It's not like that at all, Ashley. You got transferred so you could help me stop the person behind all this. Your mission's not over, it's just going to take longer than you thought it would. Don't give up yet, we'll find Saren, and we'll make sure he never hurts innocent people like this again. Are you with me?" Shepard looked into her eyes to let her know how serious she was. Stopping Saren was her first priority, and having a team with fire was always a good thing.

Ashley met her piercing gaze, and nodded. She stood a little straighter as she answered, "Yes, ma'am."

Shepard let that one slide. "I'm always here if you need to talk, Ashley. About anything. Don't forget that, alright?"

"Alright."

Shepard smiled one last time, then left to talk to Kaidan. He looked nervous, and just became more so as she approached. "Something on your mind, Kaidan?"

"I'm really sorry, Shepard. I didn't mean to put you in danger like that. I don't know where my mind was last mission. I was like a bumbling idiot. I'm just glad I didn't get anyone-" he stopped short as he thought of Jenkins.

"Jenkins wasn't your fault," Shepard said while gripping his shoulder, repeating the same thing Anderson had said to her not ten minutes before. "We all know the risks going into a mission. Besides, I was the one that told him to take point, remember?" She shook her head. "Survivor's guilt is a bitch. Trust me, I know. Like I said before, it never gets easier. But it wasn't your fault. You followed your orders, and came out alive." She sighed and smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "How's your injury?"

"Fine. Just some burns, no big deal. I had a little migraine, but it's gone now. I will need some new underarmour," he said with a half-smile.

"Well it's a good thing we're headed to the Citadel then, isn't it? We'll pick some up there."

"What's going to happen next, Shepard?"

"We're going to talk to the ambassador to see if we can meet with the Council, to convince them that Saren went rogue. Hopefully, they'll revoke his Spectre status, and then he won't be untouchable anymore. As one of the Council's right hand men, we can't do anything to stop him right now."

"That sounds good."

"Well, I'm off to shower. I need to smell like the dainty flower I am!" she said with a grin. "But seriously, if you need me for anything, Kaidan; if you need to talk, I'm always here, okay?"

"Okay, Shepard. I'll see you around."

Shepard sent him one last smile, and then walked to the crew quarters to grab a clean set of underarmour. She headed to the shower, her mind already focusing on the next task at hand, her meeting with the Council.

On the Citadel, Captain Anderson led Shepard, Kaidan, and Ashley into the Ambassador's office. An angry man in a white suit was ranting at holographic images of what Shepard took to be the Council members. They were obviously not pleased at his pushy, self-righteous attitude, and she could understand why. She shook her head. No wonder the other races didn't care for humanity, if this was the representative. She watched the exchange and crossed her arms. As she figured, nothing was going to be done or discussed until the meeting later, no matter how much the ambassador wanted things now. _He's like a toddler throwing a temper-tantrum. How did he even get this position?_ Shepard thought. She did manage to overhear that Citadel Security was investigating Saren. So at least someone was taking her and Captain Anderson's reports seriously.

As the Councilors shut themselves off, Ambassador Udina turned his hate-twisted face towards them. He made rude comments to Captain Anderson, belittled Shepard and her team, and was all around horrible. With every word that spewed from his foul mouth, she liked him less and less, but she remained coolly polite. The only good that came from the meeting was a confirmation of the time of her Council meeting.

Released to do as they pleased until then, Shepard, Kaidan and Ashley decided to stroll around the Presidium to waste time. It was a very beautiful place, with an artificial lake and live greenery all around. There was even an imitative blue sky above, with virtual fluffy clouds floating by. Shepard picked up some information here and there of strange goings-on in the galaxy, which she planned on investigating later. She also met her first hanar, a bio-luminescent pink alien, with no facial features to speak of, that was vaguely jellyfish-like. He was evidently a holy man of some sort, but refused to pay for the evangelical permit that was required. It was starting to cause a scene, so Shepard just paid the fee for him. One hundred credits was worth it to make everyone happy.

Soon, Shepard got tired of walking, and sat down on a bench in a busy section near the stores. It had been a rough couple of days, and sleeping off a beacon explosion in the medbay wasn't particularly restful. Kaidan and Ashley wanted to window shop, so they left her there for a while. Curious, Shepard accessed her omni-tool, and turned off her translator. Now she could hear all the species in their own language, instead of the Common she had always heard. She leaned back, and people-watched, trying to match the tones and modulations she heard with the species.

She soon discovered that the asari language was very sing-song and liquid. All of their voices were light and airy. The turians had a lot of clicking noises and short syllables, with a nearly constant purr of sound underneath that rapidly changed pitch. She'd heard they had dual voices, but with her translator on, she'd never noticed when talking to Nihlus. A frown crossed her face for a moment, thinking of her failure and the upcoming rebuke she was sure to get from the Council.

Her attention was caught by a pair of volus, the short stubby aliens in their pressure suits. Their language sounded mechanical, but that was probably from the suits. Besides that, it sounded mostly like hisses and deep breathing. The salarians, as they practically ran by, spoke as quickly as their legs moved. Theirs was a chirpy and clipped language. The hanar were the strangest to listen to. Listening to the other languages, she had easily heard word segments and language pattern, but the hanar's really was just sound to her. It was sort of like humming or singing with no words, just a single "ah" traveling over the music staff, but also like a buzzing choir. She watched the hanar the longest, her head tilted to the side, challenging herself to figure something out about their language. By the time Kaidan and Ashley got back, all she'd discovered was that their bodies pulsed colour in time with the rise and fall of the "ah". She saw them approaching, and quickly turned her translator on. Some experiments were best left unexplained.

They decided to grab some lunch before the meeting, but since humanity was fairly new to the Citadel, not many places offered familiar food as an option. They managed at last to find a chintzy bar with almost all humans, and ate something there. The selection was so miniscule, they all had the same thing; ramen, a dish of noodles and salty broth. Their conversation was good-natured, discussing peculiar items Kaidan and Ashley had discovered in the stores, and then the Presidium itself. Afterward, they headed to the Citadel Tower, where the Council Chamber was located at the very top.

As they stepped off the elevator and headed up the elegant stairs lined with bushes, Shepard could hear arguing. Two turians were standing at the top of the stairs, and at first she was going to ignore them, but then she caught the word 'Saren'. Instantly, her focus was drawn. The one with blue colony marks and a blue visor was asking for more time to continue his investigation, but the one with white face paint adamantly denied his request. _This must be the C-Sec investigator the Council mentioned, and his __superior__. They didn't give him much time, did they? _Shepard asked herself. As she reached the top of the stairs, the one in charge stalked away in a huff, and the other turned to look at her.

The moment her eyes met his, her breath caught in her chest, her heart stopped for a beat, and deep inside she felt something thrum, _Him._

_What!?_ she thought. Determined to not outwardly show anything, she kept her face stoic and plain.

"Commander Shepard? I'm Garrus Vakarian. I am- er -was the C-Sec officer in charge of investigating Saren," the blue-marked turian said.

The sound of his voice made her heart start racing. She refused to acknowledge any such thing. _Focus!_ she told herself, thankful that she couldn't blush. "It sounds like you really want to catch him."

"I don't trust him," he said, crossing his arms and leaning back on one foot. "Something about him rubs me the wrong way. I thought so even before I was assigned this investigation. But he's a Spectre, so everything he touches is classified. I can't find any hard evidence." His mandibles clicked in irritation, and Shepard could just make out his sub-vocals over her translator. She didn't know what they meant, of course, but she was secretly glad she could hear them.

Kaidan cut in, "Commander, I think the Council's ready for us."

She nodded absently. Shepard felt an affinity with Officer Vakarian. He was given an impossible task; to find information the Council knew was classified, while knowing that his clearance wouldn't be enough to access it. _Stupid politicking bullshit. It doesn't matter what race you are. It's always there, screwing over the good people trying to do the right thing. _She met his eyes for a moment, trying to express her understanding of his situation, while little sparks ran through her insides. She ignored them, and gave him a sad smile.

"Good luck, Commander. Maybe they'll listen to you," he said hopefully. She smirked a little in response, knowing that it was probably not going to be that simple.

"Thanks, Vakarian. I'm sure I'll need it," she answered. Then she walked slowly around him, past the giant fountain, and headed up more stairs. She could feel him behind her, pulling her attention away from her task. She lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders, refusing to turn around for another look.

"There sure are a lot of stairs," said Kaidan. "Do you think they're supposed to be symbolic of the Council's importance?" Shepard ignored his question, her attention drawn by Captain Anderson standing at the top, obviously impatient. She hurried her last couple of steps to him and was greeted by him with, "Come on! The hearing's already started."

As Shepard walked up to the dais, she could hear the asari Councilor say, "The geth attack is a matter of some concern, but there is nothing to indicate that Saren was involved in any way."

"The investigation by C-Sec turned up no evidence to support your claims of treason," said the turian.

_ Gee, I wonder why_, thought Shepard sarcastically.

"An eye witness saw him murder Nihlus!" Ambassador Udina said coldly.

"We've read the reports from Eden Prime, Ambassador," interjected the salarian Council member. "The testimony of one traumatized dockworker is hardly compelling proof."

The giant holographic image of Saren on the left spoke up. "I resent these accusations! Nihlus was a fellow Spectre, and a friend."

"That just let you catch him off guard!" Captain Anderson said.

"Ah, Captain Anderson. Why is it that you always seem to be involved when humanity makes false charges against me?" Saren asked with a silky smooth voice, like poison being poured down a throat. "And this must be your protege, Commander Shepard. The one who let the beacon get destroyed."

Shepard narrowed her eyes. _Gotcha!_ "That mission was classified. The only way you could know about that beacon is if you were there," she said, jabbing her finger at him.

His body language read, _Not this time._ "When Nihlus died, his files passed to me. I read the Eden Prime report, and I was unimpressed. But what can you expect from a human?" he added, his words dripping hatred.

Being face to face with the destroyer of Eden Prime was beginning to break her control. _Deny this! _"Saren despises humanity! That's why he attacked our colony!"

"Your species needs to learn its place in the galaxy, Shepard." His words were like icicles. _This will slow you down._ "You're not ready to join the Council. You're not even ready to join the Spectres!"

Ambassador Udina jumped in like the little gremlin he was. "He has no right to say that! That's not his decision!"

The asari Councilor looked up at Saren. "Shepard's admission into the Spectres is not the purpose of this meeting."

_Ha ha, Saren. That backfired._ Shepard thought, smirking to herself.

"There is no purpose to this meeting!" Saren answered. _You're not going to get anywhere._ "The humans are wasting your time, Councilors. And mine."

_And you're not going to get away. _"You can't hide behind the Council forever. I'll find proof, and I'll bring you down!" Shepard declared.

Captain Anderson, knowing that things were on the brink of getting out of hand, stepped in. "There is still one outstanding issue. The vision Commander Shepard received from the beacon."

Saren scoffed,"Are we allowing dreams into evidence now? How can I defend my innocence against this kind of testimony?" _That was the wrong thing to sa__y, Anderson._

The turian Councilor answered, "I agree. Our judgment must be based on facts and evidence, not wild imaginings and reckless speculation."

"Do you have anything else to add, Commander Shepard?" asked the salarian.

_You've won this round, Saren._ "No, Councilor."

The asari and turian Councilors let unspoken words pass between them. The asari turned to the humans and delivered their verdict. "The Council has found no evidence of any connection between Saren and the geth. Ambassador, your petition to have him disbarred from the Spectres is denied." Udina hung his head.

"I'm glad to see justice was served," Saren said smugly. _Try again, and fail again, Shepard. _His hologram winked out.

"This meeting is adjourned," said the asari.

Captain Anderson led Shepard, Kaidan, and Ashley away from the presenting walkway. Ambassador Udina hung back for a minute, then joined them, fuming. "It was a mistake bringing you into that hearing, Captain. You and Saren have too much history. It made the Council question our motives."

"I know Saren. He's working with the geth for one reason: to exterminate the entire human race. Every colony we have is at risk. Every world we control is in danger. Even Earth isn't safe," said Anderson.

"What is this history between you two, Captain?" asked Shepard.

"About twenty years ago, I was part of a mission in the Skyllian Verge. I was working with Saren to find and remove a known terrorist threat," he said while pacing. "Saren eliminated his target, but a lot of people died along the way. Innocent people. And the official records just covered it all up." He sighed. "But I saw how he operates. No conscience. No hesitation. He'd kill a thousand innocent civilians to end a war without a second thought. I know how the world works, Commander. Sometimes you're forced to make unpleasant decisions, but only if there's no other way. Saren doesn't even look for another option. He's twisted, broken. He likes the violence, the killing. And he knows how to cover his tracks."

"Well, we're going to have to deal with Saren ourselves. The Council is obviously not going to help us."

Ambassador Udina cut in, "As a Spectre, he's virtually untouchable. We need to find some way to expose him."

"What about that C-Sec investigator, Garrus?" asked Kaidan. A thrill ran up Shepard's spine at the mention of his name.

"That's right!" said Ashley. "He was asking for more time to finish his report. Seems like he was close to finding something on Saren."

"Any idea where we could find him?" Shepard asked Udina.

"I have a contact in C-Sec who can help us track Garrus down. His name is Harkin," he answered.

"Forget it," Anderson said sharply. "They suspended Harkin last month for drinking on the job. I wouldn't waste my time on him. He's probably down at Chora's Den right now, getting drunk."

"Well, maybe there's another way to find evidence, sir," Shepard said.

"You should talk to Barla Von in the financial district. Rumor has it he's an agent for the Shadow Broker."

"The Shadow Broker?" asked Ashley.

"An information dealer. He buys and sells secrets to the highest bidder. I've heard Barla Von's one of the top representatives. He might have information on Saren, but it won't be cheap."

"Excuse me. I have important business to attend," said Udina. "Captain, I'd like to see you later to discuss some matters of significance."

"Understood, Ambassador," said Anderson with a curt nod.

Shepard watched the inscrutable man hurry away. "Our ambassador doesn't seem to get along with the Council."

"He's just frustrated," explained Anderson. "The Council's always preaching that we need to be a part of the galactic community, but for them it's a one-way street. They want us to expand and settle unstable regions like the Skyllian Verge and the Attican Traverse. But when we run into trouble, they don't want to help us out. Everyone knows it's only a matter of time until we get a seat on the Council. The ambassador just thinks it should happen sooner rather than later, and I agree."

"Maybe they'd let us join the Council if we were more willing to cooperate with the other species, sir," Shepard said, thinking of all the distrust and arrogance she'd seen in humans recently.

"Of course they would! If we did everything they told us to, they'd love to have us on the Council. But it wouldn't be much of a deal for us. I understand their side. They don't want us dominating the Council. It's founded on cooperation and alliances. But we have to look out for our own interests, too."

Shepard nodded, allayed by Captain Anderson's words. She hadn't realized how rampant xenophobia was; it had never really come up before in her military career. It was something she didn't feel, and didn't want to concern herself with from those around her. But now that being surrounded by other species was a certainty, she wanted relations to go smoothly.

"Thank you Captain, for all the information. If you'll excuse me, it sounds like I have some legwork to do. The sooner I get started, the sooner Saren will lose his Spectre status."

"Good luck, Commander. I'll be over in the ambassador's office if you need anything else."

Shepard, followed by her team, took the incredibly long elevator ride back down to the Presidium. "Where do you think we should head first, Shepard?" asked Kaidan.

"I think we'll get more accurate information from the Shadow Broker agent than we will from some scumbag drunk in a dirty bar. Let's go there first, and if the information's not particularly useful, we can check out Harkin," Shepard answered.

"I knew subjectively there were a lot of species, but actually seeing them all here, living together...I'm not sure what to think," said Ashley, looking a little uncomfortable. "They're so...different."

"They are different," said Shepard. "But does that have to be a bad thing? Look at us three. Each of us has a different skin tone. Our ancestors lived on different parts of Earth, and three hundred years ago, those differences would have meant that some of us would have been considered inferior to others. I'm Middle Eastern, you're Hispanic, and Kaidan is European. You and I, as women, wouldn't have been allowed any kind of authority, because women are different from men. But really, that difference has no bearing on how plausible it is for someone to command or lead others. In both cases, I should be the lowest rank, or not even in the military at all.

"But through a lot of struggle and fighting, humans have learned that those things are superficial. Deeper down, we're all the same. And I think that can translate to the other species, too. They love, they hate, they make beautiful things, they discover, they try, they succeed or fail, just like we do. Who cares if they look different? If they're willing to ignore that in us, why can't we do the same for them? Obviously, coexistence is possible. They've been doing it for hundreds of years, so why can't we just join in without causing a scene?"

"I...hadn't really thought of that, ma'am," said Ashley. "I guess it's just going to take some getting used to."

"That was really well said, Shepard," added Kaidan. "You must have put a lot of thought into it."

"I don't know," Shepard shrugged. "I've always been intrigued by differences in cultures, even just between humans. I grew up a spacer, so there really wasn't any on the ships, but when I started learning the history of Earth, it was all the diversity that drew me in. I hadn't thought about the way I looked until I learned about the suppression of people based on such things." She laughed a little. "And where would I fit into all that? I'm such a mix, who knows what would have happened to me back then? The honest truth though, is that it would have been impossible for me to exist. My particular combination of genetics only came about because humans found peace amongst themselves. And isn't that a beautiful thing?"

"It is," said Kaidan, not talking about peace. Shepard looked at him sideways, a little smile dancing on her lips, and raised an eyebrow. Kaidan caught the look, and blushed, ducking his head. "So uh, where is the Financial District?"

"Just across this bridge. My omni-tool shows that Barla Von has an office right next to the rapid transit."

When they found the office, the door opened to let them in. The interior was sparse, empty except for a large desk in the center, with a volus sitting behind it.

"Ah, Commander Shepard. The hero of the Blitz," he greeted her, breathing heavily inside his pressure suit.

"And you must be Barla Von, agent of the Shadow Broker."

"I am. Is there something I can help you with, Commander?"

"Yes. I was told that you'd have information on Saren. How much will it cost?" She crossed her arms, and shifted to one side.

"Oh, normally quite expensive, but now it costs nothing. The Shadow Broker is quite angry at Saren. He turned on him, and that is a foolish thing to do."

"Saren's been doing that to a lot of people, lately."

"Yes, well, the Shadow Broker has hired a krogan mercenary to deal with Saren now, so if you want anymore information, I suggest you go talk to him."

"That's all you have?" She let her arms fall back down to her sides.

"I try not to get too involved with the Shadow Broker's business. That would put me in a dangerous position, and I do my best to avoid danger at all costs. The last I heard, the krogan was at the C-Sec Academy."

"Why would a krogan go willingly to C-Sec?" she asked.

"I don't think it was all that willing. For some reason, people don't really trust krogans," he said sarcastically.

Shepard nodded. "Thanks for the information, Barla Von. If you'll excuse us."

"Anytime, Commander. Come back if you need anymore information. I'm sure we could come to an agreement" He went back to his terminal, his focus now on his work.

As they walked out of the office, Shepard punched up directions to C-Sec Academy. They headed down the boulevard, enjoying the view.

"A krogan, huh? I don't see any of those here," said Kaidan.

"No, there's a statue of one right there," said Ashley, pointing as they walked past.

"Why would there be a statue of a krogan in a place full of people that don't trust them?" asked Kaidan.

"It's to honour them for their help in the Rachni Wars. If it hadn't been for the massive armies of the krogan, the galaxy would have been lost. Instead, the rachni have been wiped out to extinction. It's just that afterward, the krogan started taking over planets for expansion without caring if those planets already had other colonies on them, and their birthrate was exponential. That led to the Krogan Rebellions, in which the turians and the salarians used biological warfare on them. The Genophage made the krogans pretty much sterile. Something like only one out of a thousand births are live; the rest are stillborn. And that was almost fifteen hundred years ago. They are dying out, and that's another reason you don't see them much."

"You sure do know a lot about the other races, Shepard," said Kaidan admiringly.

"Like I said, I love history and cultural studies." she said, shrugging. "Ah, here we are." They walked through the doors to C-Sec, and looked around for a krogan. He wasn't hard to spot, head and shoulders above the three human officers surrounding him. Really, he was just massive in general. As they walked closer to wait their turn to talk to him, they could overhear the conversation.

"Witnesses saw you making threats in Fist's bar. Stay away from him," said one officer, trying to look tough. Next to a krogan, it was laughable.

"I don't take orders from you," said the krogan, in a deep gravelly voice.

"This is your only warning, Wrex."

"You should warn Fist. I will kill him," Wrex said obstinately.

"You want me to arrest you?" asked the officer, his hard facade cracking. There was no way he could take down a krogan, and he knew it.

"I want you to try," said Wrex, as he stepped forward, menacing the little man. Then he caught sight of Shepard waiting patiently, and turned to walk towards her.

"Go on, get out of here," yelled the officer, one last show of feigned muscle.

"Do I know you, human?" Wrex asked, looming over Shepard.

"My name's Shepard."

"Shepard? Commander Shepard? I've heard a lot about you. What do you want?"

"I'm looking to bring Saren down. My intel says the Shadow Broker hired you to deal with him."

"Not Saren directly. I was hired to kill Fist, a human who stopped working for the Shadow Broker to work for Saren."

"I'll bet Fist will have information we could use, Commander," said Ashley.

"We're both warriors, Shepard. Out of respect, I'll give you fair warning. I am going to kill him."

"After I talk to him, I don't care what you do. Give me that opportunity, and you can come with us," Shepard said, crossing her arms.

"Why wouldn't I just go by myself?"

"Fist knows you're coming. We'll have a better chance if we work together."

"My people have a saying: Seek the enemy of your enemy, and you will find a friend."

"Glad to have you on the team, Wrex."

"Let's go. I hate to keep Fist waiting."

He started to walk off, but stopped as Shepard spoke. "Hang on, I have something else to take care of first. I'm tracking down a particular C-Sec officer who might have useful information for me."

"Well, ask somebody then. This is C-Sec," he said impatiently.

Shepard looked around for a moment, trying to find someone of sufficient rank. When she had spotted a likely candidate, she walked purposefully towards them. "Excuse me, Officer, but I'm looking for someone. Is there any way you could tell me where Officer Vakarian is located? It's important."

"Vakarian? Why in the world would you want to talk to him? He's a loser, going on about crazy conspiracy theories and betrayals. He doesn't know anything important."

"It's classified. Could you just look him up in the system for me? Please?"

The officer sighed. "Alright. Let me see...it looks like he's headed to Dr. Michel's clinic nearby. There. I've sent you the coordinates."

"Thank you for your help, Officer," Shepard said with a warm smile.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. My pleasure, and all that," he huffed, waving a hand dismissively.

Shepard walked back over to her team, frowning in thought. "Our group's getting a little big. Which one of you two are willing to go back to the ship?" she asked Kaidan and Ashley. They looked at each other a moment, then Ashley spoke up.

"I will, Shepard. Honestly, all this is a little much to take in. I need some time to process, I think."

"I understand, Ashley. Being dumped into a whole new situation can be hard. You've had a tough couple of days, and we've already briefed the Council on Eden Prime, so you're free to go. Relax, Ashley. Take advantage of all the hot water available," she said with a wink. Ashley gave a wan smile, and headed up the elevator to the docking bays.

"Alright you two, we're going to Dr. Michel's clinic first to talk to Vakarian, then to get Fist. Where is he, anyway?" she asked, turning to direct the question at Wrex.

"He owns Chora's Den. That's where he'll be," he answered.

"Got it," she said. "Let's go."

They took the rapid transit to the ward clinic hallway, and walked through the doors. At first glance, the doctor was being shoved around by three thugs who were threatening her. At second glance, Shepard could see Garrus hiding behind a wall with a sniper rifle, waiting for the perfect shot. Her stomach flipped at the site of him. As the doors opened, the thug nearest Dr. Michel grabbed her to his chest with a gun against her head. While he was distracted by Shepard, Garrus took the shot, hitting him between the eyes. All hell broke loose for about two seconds, as Shepard pulled out her rifle and sniped the thug on the left, and Garrus finished the one on the right.

As Shepard put her weapon away, she turned around to look at Kaidan and Wrex. To their credit, they were both armed, but they looked a little humiliated. "You guys are going to have to be faster than that to be on my ground team. Beaten by two snipers, tsk tsk," she smirked.

"Perfect timing, Commander. You gave me a clear shot," said Garrus from behind her.

Shepard whirled around, the smile gone, her eyes snapping with anger. "You! What were you thinking?" She stalked towards him, her finger out, jabbing him in the chest. "You could have hit the hostage!" Then she side-stepped him and went to help Dr. Michel up from the floor.

"There wasn't time to think! I just reacted. I didn't mean to- Dr. Michel? Are you hurt?" His body swiveled to follow her while he talked, then followed her to the doctor.

"No, I'm okay. Thanks to you. All of you," she answered in a thick French accent.

"I know those men threatened you," Shepard said comfortingly, an arm around her shoulders. "But if you tell us who they work for, we can protect you."

"They work for Fist. They wanted to shut me up, to keep me from telling Garrus about the quarian." Wrex stepped forward at the mention of Fist, but didn't interrupt.

"What quarian?" asked Garrus.

Shepard couldn't focus for a moment, distracted by the proximity of the turian. _What is wrong with me? I don't even know him! Stop it!_ she told herself. The tingling of her skin wouldn't go away, but she tried her best to ignore it.

"A few days ago, a quarian came by my office. She'd been shot, but she wouldn't tell me who did it. I could tell she was scared, probably on the run. She asked me about the Shadow Broker. She wanted to trade information in exchange for a safe place to hide."

"Then what happened?" asked Shepard.

"I put her in contact with Fist. He's an agent for the Shadow Broker."

"Not anymore," said Wrex, stepping in. "Now he works for Saren, and the Shadow Broker isn't happy. I was hired to kill him."

"Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker? That's stupid, even for him. Saren must have made him quite the offer," Dr. Michel said, shaking her head.

"The quarian must have something Saren wants. Something worth crossing the Shadow Broker to get," said Garrus.

Shepard avoided his gaze, instead directing her words to the doctor. "She must have something that proves he's a traitor. Did the quarian mention anything about Saren? Or the geth?"

"She did! The information she was going to trade. She said it had something to do with the geth."

"She must be able to link Saren to them," said Garrus. "There's no way the council can ignore this!" The fervor in his voice made Shepard look up at him involuntarily, and her mouth went dry. "This is your show, Shepard. But I want to bring Saren down as much as you do. I want to come with you."

Shepard swallowed and asked, managing to sound normal, "Why do you hate Saren so much?"

"He's a disgrace! A disgrace to the Spectres, a disgrace to the Council, and a disgrace to turians as a whole! If I let him get away with this, when I could have helped stop it, how am I any better than him? He can't continue. This needs to end." His fury made his brilliant blue eyes flash.

"You can come with me on one condition," she said, her face turning hard. "You will never, _ever_, jeopardize a civilian's life like that again, do you understand me?"

"Yes," Garrus answered.

She got up in his face, as well as she could, being six inches shorter. "I said, _do you understand me?_"

"Yes, ma'am!" he said, snapping to attention, a reflex to the sound of a commanding officer.

"Good. Because we are here to protect civilians, not endanger them. Why fight at all, if innocents don't matter?" She walked over to Wrex and Kaidan. "Let's go get Fist."

While Shepard, Wrex, and Garrus took the short walk a few floors down to Chora's Den, Kaidan took a rapid transit back to the Normandy. Wrex and Garrus were both personally invested in the mission, so he knew they'd do a good job keeping Shepard safe, and his migraine was coming back. He was also worried about Ashley, and wanted to check up on her.

As Shepard and her new team neared Chora's Den, it was obvious something was going on. The place was eerily quiet, no loud beating music was playing at all.

"Fist knows we're coming," said Garrus quietly. They all readied their weapons. Garrus and Shepard both pulled out their snipers, and Wrex had an assault rifle. Shepard raised an eyebrow at Garrus' back, curious how two snipers was going to play out. They both had other weapons available to them, but neither one wanted to give up their favourite. The situation made her competitive side stir, and she wanted to make sure she was better than the turian. Just then, Garrus turned his head, and caught her expression. His was mimicking her own, and they both spontaneously smiled at each other. The game was on.

Shepard went to the left side of the door, Garrus went to the right, and Wrex just stood right in front of it. Wrex looked at her and she nodded, so he swiped his hand over the green panel and the door opened. Immediately he ran into the fray, spraying bullets everywhere, and roaring a battle cry. Shepard aimed for thugs that were in the back, and Garrus aimed for the ones that were on the dancing platforms.

"Two!" hollered out Garrus.

_Oh, is that how we're going to play?_ thought Shepard. "Three!" she yelled, as her third thug fell over a table. She immediately reloaded her Avenger, and aimed for a fourth. He went down with a hole right between the eyes. "Four!"

"Three!" said Garrus at the same time. Shepard took a moment to check on Wrex and reposition herself further in the room, taking cover behind an overturned table. "Four!" Garrus shouted. Shepard whipped her head around to see his number four go down, a beautiful shot through an eye socket. She turned back to Wrex, just as he mowed down the last two thugs who were standing in front of a door.

"Clear!" said Garrus, as he reloaded and sauntered his way over to Shepard and Wrex. "It's six to five right now, Shepard."

"I just wanted you to feel like you were part of the team, Vakarian. I won't go so easy on you next time," she answered with a smirk, reloading her rifle.

"Fist's office is through here," said Wrex, motioning to the door with his gun. They walked through, Shepard taking point, and ran into two unarmoured men standing behind some crates.

"Stop right there! Don't come any closer!" called one of them, pointing a pistol in their general direction.

"Warehouse workers," said Garrus. "All the real guards must be dead." Shepard nodded in acknowledgment.

"Stay back or we'll shoot!" cried the other one, his hands visibly shaking on his gun.

"This would be a good time to find somewhere else to work. I don't think you're getting paid enough for this kind of overtime," said Shepard calmly, lowering her rifle.

The first one wavered for a moment, then lowered his weapon. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. That's a good idea."

The second followed suit. "I never liked Fist anyway."

Shepard motioned toward them to walk past and exit out the door they'd just come through. After they'd left, Garrus said, "I never would've thought of that." He looked at Shepard with a mix of wonder and respect.

"Shooting people isn't always the answer. Remember what I said about civilians? That goes for civilians with guns too," she answered, threading her way around the boxes.

Down the corridor and around two corners, they came to a door that opened automatically. Fist, a human with a dark flat top, was standing behind a desk in a swanky office. "Why do I have to do everything myself? Time to die, little soldiers!" he screamed as he pushed a button on his terminal. A defensive turret on either side of the desk rose up from the floor and took automatic aim at them. Shepard and Garrus took cover on either side of the door, but Wrex, with his krogan regeneration, didn't even bother. He put a barrier up around himself, and sprayed bullets all around the room. Shepard once again aimed to the left, targeting the turret there, and Garrus went right. The turrets self-destructed at almost the same time, and everyone turned their focus on Fist.

He was cowering in the corner with his hands up, wailing, "Wait! Don't kill me! I surrender!"

Shepard trained her rifle on him, and held it not two feet from his face. Not generally meant for close encounters, at this range it would be just fine. She wouldn't need her scope to hit the target. "Where's the quarian?"

"She's not here. I don't know where she is! That's the truth!" he cringed back from the gun.

Wrex reloaded his assault rifle menacingly and said, "He's no use to you now. Let me kill him."

"Wait, wait! I don't know where the quarian is, but I know where you can find her. The quarian isn't here, said she'd only deal with the Shadow Broker himself."

"Face to face? Impossible. Even I was hired through an agent.," said Wrex.

Shepard lowered her sniper, knowing Wrex was more than ready. Fist stood up and dusted himself off. "Nobody meets the Shadow Broker. Ever. Even I don't know his true identity. But she didn't know that. I told her I'd set a meeting up. But when she shows up, it'll be Saren's men waiting for her."

Shepard lunged forward and grabbed his collar, pulling him down so close, their noses were almost touching. "Give me the location! Now!" Then she let go, shoving him back so he stumbled.

"Here on the wards," he yelped, his voice cracking. "The back alley by the markets. She's supposed to meet them right now. You can make it if you hurry." Wrex blasted him in the chest, and he hit the wall then slid down, dead.

"What are you doing?" asked Garrus incredulously.

"The Shadow Broker paid me to kill him. I don't leave jobs half done," Wrex answered.

Shepard eyed him, but didn't say anything for a minute. Then, "Try not to shoot anymore unarmed prisoners, alright?"

"How many people died because of him? He brought this on himself," he said back.

"We have more pressing concerns," Garrus interjected. "That quarian's dead if we don't go now!"

They headed back down the corridor to Chora's Den, which was full of more thugs, probably called by Fist when he'd pushed that button. Shepard ducked down behind a table to the left, and checked her sniper. She looked over at Wrex, peppering the ones close by, and then at Garrus, running while crouched part way around the ring of the room. She looked back to her section, and focused her breathing. She took aim, and shot one running towards her between the eyes. The force of the shot knocked his feet out from under him as he fell on his back. "Six!" she yelled.

"Seven, Eight!" she heard from the other side of the room.

_Was that two in one?_ she thought as she took down another. "Seven!" She vaulted the table, and ran while reloading, then skidded to a stop, aimed quickly, and took down the last man, just as Garrus was aiming for him. "Eight," she said, lowering her rifle, grinning at him. "Now we're tied."

"Yeah, but that last one wasn't very clean. You must have been really worried that I was going to beat you, Shepard."

"No, I just didn't want you to get hurt," she taunted. "Since I'm sure you're normally behind a desk and not used to these kinds of situations anymore."

"And yet, I still managed to tie you. That means you're only as good as a paper-pushing turian. So with just a little more practice, I'll beat you every time."

"That's what you think."

"I guess we'll just have to see," he said, walking towards her.

Her heart gave a little leap at the thought of him being near. "I guess we will," she answered, sounding normal.

"Are you guys done? Or are kill shots more important than that quarian now?" asked Wrex, standing next to the exit. Shepard and Garrus walked to the exit in perfect unison, glancing sideways at each other and smirking. Shepard thought it was funny that she could read his expressions so well, having barely known him a few hours, as well as him being a different species entirely. Maybe it was just that she could tell he was smiling. Maybe she wouldn't be able to tell if he was angry or worried or sad. Her thoughts continued down a similar vein as they ran down the hallways and up the stairs to the alley Fist had mentioned. At the top of the stairs, they looked down into the little dead end. A turian assassin was approaching the quarian, who was completely concealed by an enviro-suit, while two salarians in full body armour stood by behind her.

"Did you bring it?" asked the assassin.

"Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's Fist?" demanded the quarian, with an unfamiliar accent.

The assassin was now right in front of her, and ran his hand sensually down along the side of her mask and her left arm. "They'll be here. Where's the evidence?"

She smacked his hand off of her and took a step back. "No way. The deal's off." Before anyone else could react, she turned and threw a grenade at the two salarians, then dove for cover behind a crate. Shepard aimed at the back of the turian's head and squeezed her trigger, but it only dropped his shields. Her bullet was followed by one from Garrus, which took him down. She looked for the salarians, but Wrex and the quarian had already taken care of them.

"Nine," Garrus said, flaring his mandibles wide in his turian smile.

"That was a joint kill," She argued. "You couldn't have taken him down without my shot dropping his shields."

He shrugged good-naturedly. "But I'm the one who killed him. Better luck next time, Shepard." He clapped his hand on her shoulder for a moment as he walked by, a comradely show of affection.

As he went down the stairs in front of her, she thought about his hand, large with two long fingers and a thumb, all ending in deadly talons. She wondered what it looked like without gloves on. She shook her head to clear it, then followed him. _I sure hope more frequent association with him puts an end to this_, she thought.

The quarian was not happy. "Fist set me up! That bosh'tet! I knew I couldn't trust him!"

"Don't worry about Fist," said Wrex. "He got what was coming to him," lifting his assault rifle pointedly.

"Then I guess there are two things I need to thank you for. But who are you?" she turned her helmeted head towards Shepard. The glow of her eyes through the purple face shield shrank in size, as if she was squinting.

"My name's Shepard, that's Wrex, and this is Vakarian," she motioned to each of them as she spoke. "We're looking for evidence to prove Saren's a traitor."

"Then I have a chance to repay you for saving my life. But not here. We need to go somewhere safe. I'm Tali, by the way. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya," she said.

"Let's go to the human ambassador's office. It's safe there, and I'm sure he'll want to see whatever you have anyway," Shepard said. Tali nodded, and she followed them out of the alley and onto the rapid transit.

At the ambassador's office, Udina started berating Shepard before he even turned around to see if it was actually her. "You're not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the wards? An all-out assault on Chora's Den? Do you know how many-" he cut off as he turned and saw Tali. "Who's this? A quarian? What are you up to, Shepard?"

Shepard answered nonchalantly, "Making your day, Ambassador. She has information linking Saren to the geth."

"Really?" He seemed excited. "Maybe you'd better start at the beginning, Miss...?"

"Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." she answered.

"We don't see many quarians here. Why did you leave the flotilla?" For once, Udina's arrogant attitude was practically nonexistent.

"I was on my Pilgrimage, my rite of passage into adulthood," she said. At the looks of wonder and confusion around her, she continued. "It is a tradition among my people. When we reach maturity, we leave the ships of our parents and our people behind. Alone, we search the stars, only returning to the flotilla once we have discovered something of value. It could be resources like food or fuel, or some type of useful technology. Or even knowledge that will make life easier on the flotilla. Through our Pilgrimage, we prove ourselves worthy of adulthood. We prove that we will contribute to the community, rather than being a burden on our limited resources."

"So, what did you find?" asked Shepard.

"During my travels I began hearing reports of geth. Since they drove my people into exile, the geth have never ventured beyond the Veil. I was curious. I tracked a patrol of geth to an uncharted world. I waited for one to become separated from its unit. Then I disabled it and removed its memory core," Tali said.

Captain Anderson spoke for the first time. "I thought the geth fried their memory cores when they died. Some kind of defense mechanism."

"How did you manage to preserve the memory core?" wondered Shepard.

"My people created the geth," explained Tali. "If you're quick, careful, and lucky, small caches of data can sometimes be saved. Most of the core was wiped clean. But I salvaged something from its audio banks." She accessed something on her omni-tool, then pressed play.

A recording of Saren's voice could be heard saying, "Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."

Anderson's eyes lit up with a fire Shepard hadn't seen before. "That's Saren's voice! This proves he was involved in the attack!"

"He said he was one step closer to finding the Conduit. Any idea what that means?" Shepard asked everyone, hoping someone would have an answer.

"The Conduit must have something to do with the beacon. Maybe it's some kind of Prothean technology...like a weapon," said Anderson, pacing back and forth.

"Wait," said Tali. "There's more. Saren wasn't working alone." She replayed the recording. Saren's voice repeated, and then a woman's voice came on.

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers," it said.

"I don't recognize that other voice," said Udina.

Shepard asked, "Reapers? Are they some kind of new alien species?"

Tali shook her head. "According to the memory core, the Reapers were a hyper-advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago. The Reapers hunted the Protheans to total extinction, and then they vanished. At least, that's what the geth believe," she finished with a shrug.

"The vision on Eden Prime – I understand it now. I saw the Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers," said Shepard, one hand on her forehead.

"The geth revere the Reapers as gods, the pinnacle of non-organic life. And they believe Saren knows how to bring the Reapers back," explained Tali.

"The Council is just going to love this!" said Udina.

Shepard had almost forgotten about them, her mind off in deep space with the Reapers and Saren. "The Reapers are a threat to every species in Citadel space. We have to tell them" she said.

"No matter what they think about the rest of this, those audio files prove Saren's a traitor." Anderson was full of conviction. Finally, after twenty years, Saren would be brought to justice.

"The captain's right," agreed Udina. "We need to present this to the Council right away."

"What about her?" asked Garrus, motioning towards Tali.

"You saw me in the alley, Commander. You know what I can do. Let me come with you." Tali stepped forward while talking, her voice earnest.

"I thought you were on your Pilgrimage," said Shepard.

"The Pilgrimage proves we are willing to give of ourselves for the greater good. What does it say about me if I turn my back on this? Saren is a danger to the entire galaxy. My Pilgrimage can wait," answered Tali.

"I'll take all the help I can get," Shepard said with a smile.

"Thanks. You won't regret this."

Udina, ignoring Tali and Shepard's conversation, said, "Anderson and I will go ahead to get things ready with the Council. Take a few minutes to collect yourself, then meet us in the Tower."

The Captain and the Ambassador left, leaving Shepard in a room of people she'd only just met today. She smiled at the direction her life was obviously taking, meeting new species and working directly alongside them. She shifted to one hip, and crossed her arms, still smiling. "I can't take all three of you to see the Council, I can only take two. Vakarian, you started the investigation into Saren, and Tali, you found the evidence. Wrex, I think you should stay behind."

"As long as you don't leave me on the Citadel, that's fine. I'm coming with you. You're a good warrior, but you need a Battlemaster on your side," he answered.

"In that case, you can just go on ahead to the Normandy. I'll send word, so they'll be expecting you," said Shepard.

"Shepard," he said as a way of farewell.

"Wrex," she answered.

At the top of the Tower, they met Anderson waiting for them, just like before. And just like before, Shepard was late.

"Come on. Udina's presenting the quarian's evidence to the Council," said Anderson. Shepard could hear the recording playing.

After it finished, Udina said vehemently, "You wanted proof, there it is!"

The turian Councilor said, "This evidence is irrefutable, Ambassador. Saren will be stripped of his Spectre status and all efforts will be made to bring him in to answer for his crimes."

"I recognize the other voice, the one speaking with Saren. It's Matriarch Benezia," said the asari Councilor.

"Who is she?" asked Shepard.

"Matriarchs are powerful asari who have entered the final stage of their lives. Revered for their wisdom and experience, they serve as guides and mentors to my people," she explained. "Matriarch Benezia is a powerful biotic, and she had many followers. She will make a formidable ally for Saren."

"I'm more interested in the Reapers. What do you know about them?" asked the salarian Councilor.

"Only what was extracted from the geth's memory core," answered Anderson. "The Reapers were an ancient race of machines that wiped out the Protheans. Then they vanished."

"The geth believe the Reapers are gods, and Saren is the prophet of their return," added Shepard.

"We think the Conduit is the key to bringing them back. Saren's searching for it. That's why he attacked Eden Prime," said Anderson.

"Do we even know what this Conduit is?" asked the salarian.

"Saren thinks it can bring back the Reapers. That's bad enough," said Shepard, shrugging.

"Listen to what you're saying!" interjected the turian Councilor. "Saren wants to bring back the machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy? Impossible. It has to be. Where did the Reapers go? Why did they vanish? How come we've found no trace of their existence? If they were real, we'd have found something!"

"I tried to warn you about Saren, and you refused to face the truth. Don't make the same mistake again," said Shepard coldly.

"This is different," soothed the asari. "You proved Saren betrayed the Council. We all agree he's using the geth to search for the Conduit, but we don't really know why."

"The Reapers are obviously just a myth, Commander. A convenient lie to cover Saren's true purpose. A legend he is using to bend the geth to his will," said the salarian Councilor, dismissing the notion with a wave of his hand.

"Fifty thousand years ago, the Reapers wiped out all galactic civilization. If Saren finds the Conduit, it will happen again!" insisted Shepard.

"Saren is a rogue agent on the run for his life. He no longer has the rights or resources of a Spectre. The Council has stripped him of his position," said the turian Councilor, trying to keep the meeting on track.

"That is not good enough! You know he's hiding somewhere in the Traverse. Send your fleet in!" screeched Udina. Shepard held back a sigh at his lack of control.

"A fleet cannot track down one man," reasoned the salarian.

"A Citadel fleet could secure the entire region. Keep the geth from attacking any more of our colonies," argued Udina.

"Or it could trigger a war with the Terminus Systems! We won't be dragged into a galactic confrontation over a few dozen human colonies!" shouted the turian.

Shepard stepped forward, hoping to stop the argument before it got out of hand. _He thinks he has to clean up my messes, but here I am cleaning up his_, she thought._ "_I can take Saren down."

"The Commander's right," said the asari. "There is a way to stop Saren that doesn't require fleets or armies."

"No! It's too soon. Humanity is not ready for the responsibilities that come with joining the Spectres," asserted the turian Councilor.

"Humanity may not be ready, Councilors, but I am. This way, you don't have to send a fleet into the Traverse, and the Ambassador gets his human Spectre. Everybody's happy," said Shepard. The Councilors all looked at each other, judging the opinions of the others silently. Then they all started inputting information into their terminals.

The asari spoke first. "Commander Shepard – step forward. It is the decision of the Council that you be granted all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel."

The salarian continued smoothly, "Spectres are not trained, but chosen. Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle, those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file."

The asari spoke again. "Spectres are an ideal, a symbol. The embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will."

Then the turian said, "Spectres bear a great burden. They are protectors of galactic peace, both our first and last line of defense. The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold."

The asari finished with, "You are the first human Spectre, Commander. This is a great accomplishment for you and your entire species."

Shepard bowed her head solemnly. "I'm honored, Councilors."

"We're sending you into the Traverse after Saren. He's a fugitive from justice, so you are authorized to use any means necessary to apprehend or eliminate him," said the salarian, the momentous occasion over quickly.

"Do you have any idea where to find him?" asked Shepard.

"We will forward any relevant files to Ambassador Udina," said the turian.

"This meeting of the Council is adjourned," said the asari Councilor.

Shepard and her company walked down the steps before they stopped to talk.

"Congratulations, Commander," said Captain Anderson, shaking her hand with a wide smile. Shepard beamed back.

"We've got a lot of work to do, Shepard. You're going to need a ship, a crew, supplies..." said Udina, oblivious to the celebratory mood.

"You'll get access to special equipment and training now. You should go down to the C-Sec Academy to speak to the Spectre requisitions officer," said Anderson.

"Anderson, come with me. I'll need your help to set all this up." Udina spoke quickly, before walking away in a rush.

"I thought the ambassador would be a little more grateful," said Garrus, his subharmonics vibrating a pitch Shepard hadn't heard before.

_Confusion, maybe? Or disappointment? I'd better do some research later, or we're going to end up with some serious misunderstandings on our hands, _she thought to herself.

"He didn't even thank you," added Tali.

Shepard smiled at them. "Until I find Saren, I haven't done anything worth thanking. Come on," she answered, heading down the long flight of stairs that lead to the very long elevator ride.

"Right behind you, Shepard," said Tali.

Shepard spent the next few hours wandering around the Citadel, picking up supplies for her new team members, including foodstuffs, because quarians and turians both couldn't eat human food. They were dextro-amino based lifeforms, where humans and the other species were levo-based. Ingesting anything with the wrong amino acids could lead to serious allergic reactions, and the last thing Shepard needed was part of her team down for something so easily avoided. It helped that Garrus and Tali were with her, because that way they got to purchase decent rations, instead of something bland or disgusting. Shepard had had her share of nearly inedible military meals. Thinking about that, she went ahead and bought better human food, too. She even purchased a few things that were specifically krogan, and had it all sent to the Normandy.

They stopped by the Spectre Requisitions office Anderson had mentioned, and with her new stipend, she purchased better weapons and armour for her whole ground team. _I could really get used to this!_ she thought. The looks on Tali's and Garrus' faces were definitely worth it, and the thought of the other three being equally happy brought a smile of pride to her face.

As she meandered, slowly making her way back to the Normandy where Anderson had messaged her to meet him, she ran into people who recognized her and were asking for her help. She made a note of their requests, took care of the ones she could, and promised to look into the others when she had the time. It seemed to her like these were the kinds of things Spectres should be doing; the things other branches of law and government couldn't or wouldn't take care of.

On the dock next to the Normandy, both Captain Anderson and Ambassador Udina were waiting for her. Udina spoke, the first smile Shepard had seen on his face. "I've got big news for you, Shepard. Captain Anderson is stepping down as commanding officer of the Normandy. The ship is yours now."

"She's quick and quiet and you know the crew. Perfect ship for a Spectre. Treat her well, Commander," added Anderson.

Shepard was stunned. "I want the truth. Why are you stepping down, sir?"

"You needed your own ship. A Spectre can't answer to anyone but the Council. And it's time for me to step down."

That last part just didn't make any sense. She shook her head and crossed her arms. "Come clean with me, Captain. You owe me that much."

"I was in your shoes twenty years ago, Shepard. They were considering me for the Spectres."

"Why didn't you ever mention this?" she asked, surprised, dropping her arms.

"What was I supposed to say? 'I could've been a Spectre but I blew it?' I failed, Commander. It's not something I'm proud of. Ask me some other time, and I'll tell you the whole story. For now, all you need to know is I was sent on that mission with Saren, and he made sure the Council rejected me. I had my shot. It came and went. Now you have a chance to make up for my mistakes," he said firmly, confident in her.

"I won't let you down, sir."

"Saren's gone," Anderson said, changing the subject. "Don't even try to find him. But we know what he's after: the Conduit. He's got his geth scouring the Traverse looking for clues."

"We had reports of geth in the Feros system shortly before our colony there dropped out of contact. And there have been sightings around Noveria," continued Udina.

"Find out what Saren was after on Feros and Noveria. Maybe you can figure out where the Conduit is before he does," added Anderson.

"The Reapers are the real threat," insisted Shepard.

"I'm with the Council on this one, Shepard. I'm not sure they even exist," said Udina.

"But if they do exist, the Conduit's the key to bringing them back. Stop Saren from getting the Conduit and we stop the Reapers from returning," Anderson said.

"I'll stop him," Shepard said, with all the conviction she had.

"We have one more lead," added Udina. "Matriarch Benezia, the other voice on that recording? She has a daughter, a scientist who specializes in the Protheans. We don't know if she's involved, but it might be a good idea to try and find her. See what she knows. Her name's Liara. Dr. Liara T'Soni. We have reports she was exploring an archeological dig on one of the uncharted worlds in the Artemis Tau cluster."

"It sounds like we should head there first."

"It's your decision, Commander. You're a Spectre now. You don't answer to us," said Anderson proudly.

"But your actions still reflect on humanity as a whole. You make a mess and I get stuck cleaning it up," interjected Udina.

Shepard managed not to snort. "I'll try not to make things any harder on you, Ambassador."

"Glad to hear it, Commander. Remember: you were a human long before you were a Spectre."

_What's that supposed to mean?_ she thought to herself.

"I have a meeting to get to," he continued. "Captain Anderson can answer any questions you might have." He stalked off in a hurry.

Shepard turned back to her captain. She really liked and respected Anderson, and this couldn't be easy on him. He'd only had the Normandy in his command for a few months, and now it was being taken from him? She shook her head sadly. "How are you holding up, Captain?"

Anderson sighed, his military control easing slightly. "Honestly? This isn't how I pictured my career coming to an end. Pushing papers really isn't my thing." He looked dejected, but then he smiled warmly at her. "But you're the one who can stop Saren. I believe in you, Shepard. If that means I have to step aside, so be it."

"Thank you for everything you've done for me, sir. I hope to live up to your expectations."

"I know you will, Commander. Now go board your ship. We've already let them know that you're the CO, but they're expecting a speech from you. I'll be here if you need anything, Shepard. Don't forget that. I'm still behind you one hundred percent."

"Thank you again, Captain." She shook his hand with all the goodwill she had, a bright smile on her face. She saluted him one last time, and then led her new team onto the Normandy.


	5. Chapter 4 - Artemis Tau

**A/N: BioWare owns the Mass Effect Universe. I'm sorry this chapter took so long to post (a month, what?), but I had real world obligations to perform. I couldn't allow myself to get sucked into the wonderful world of writing, because I knew it would take over my life and I wouldn't get anything else done. But they are finally done, and so I am back! Yay! I love you guys, let me know what you think of this chapter!**

Chapter 4

Kaidan made his way back to the Normandy, his mind on the commander. The day's events had given him plenty to contemplate, but his thoughts ever turned to her part in them. Over the last few months, he had found himself regarding her with increasing affection. It was more than simple desire, and deeper than respect. Sure, she was beautiful, strong, and smart. But she was also kindhearted and honourable. The fact that she genuinely cared about people was just made more obvious by the events of the last forty-eight hours. The way she helped the colonists on Eden Prime, and then Ashley and himself in the aftermath, her speech about differences and cultures, the way she treated the aliens...he shook his head in wonder. And even with that, she was steel underneath it all. Unbreakable, unchanging, dependable, powerful. She'd made it through N training, saved a colony before even that, and it hadn't turned her hard or cynical. She was who she was, and no matter what came her way, she would always remain. Nothing could break her. It was encouraging to know that even at the end of this Saren business, and whatever came after that, she would come out on top, still compassionate and sincere.

He entered the decontamination room from the dock, waited patiently, and then stepped into the cockpit. Joker was there, of course. Even with the ship having been docked for hours now, there were still things he was doing, but Kaidan didn't know how.

Joker's chair spun around to face him. "Got kicked off the Citadel? What'd you do, Biotic-boy? Explode somebody?" His eyes were lit from within. Kaidan was used to Joker's special brand of teasing by now, but he still wasn't comfortable enough with the flight lieutenant to respond in kind.

Instead, he just quietly smiled at him, and said, "No."

"You did, didn't you! Look at that smug face! I hope it was worth it, just wait till the captain finds out!" he crowed.

Kaidan just shook his head, wearing a grin now, and walked around the CIC to the stairs. His smile faded as his thoughts turned inward again, a frown gently creasing his brow. He had told Shepard that his migraine was coming back, but it really wasn't bad enough to warrant returning to the ship; he'd worked through much worse. He could tell that she had wanted the krogan and the turian with her for the rest of the mission, and he felt that he was just going to be in the way. With the way he had bungled Eden Prime, he didn't trust himself to not cause any more problems, or to keep her safe. Honestly, he probably _was_ keeping her safe by staying behind. Just look at that beacon mess. If he hadn't had been such an idiot, she wouldn't have almost died and been knocked unconscious for fifteen hours. For now at least, it was better that he wasn't around. Maybe tomorrow would be a better day.

He made his way down to the cargo bay after seeing that the mess and crew quarters were empty. He remembered that Ashley had seemed the most comfortable down there at the weapons bench, disassembling and cleaning the guns. Sure enough, that's where she was, polishing a Lancer assault rifle. He could tell that she was deep in her thoughts, probably caused by the same person that were causing his.

"Hey," he said.

She dropped the rifle and looked up stunned, as the gun clattered loudly on the metal worktable. "Oh! Kaidan! I didn't hear you come in. Is Shepard back?"

"No, not yet. After you left, we went to a clinic and rescued a doctor being held at gunpoint. That Garrus guy was there, so I left Shepard with Wrex and him to chase down some guy named Fist and find a quarian who's supposed to have information on Saren. They knew more than I did. I figured they'd be more useful to her than I would." He shrugged. "But anyway, how are you doing? Everything okay?"

Ashley picked up the Lancer, inspected it, and began polishing it again. She waited a few moments before answering. "I don't know, I guess so. It's just..." she paused, looking up at him and met his light brown eyes with her dark ones. She could see the sincerity there, and decided to trust him. "It's just that my grandfather was General Williams. _The_ General Williams, the one who surrendered to the turians on Shanxi during the First Contact War. To this day, he is still the only human to have surrendered to an alien force. Nothing official happened, his action did save the rest of the colony, but he was disgraced. Eventually, he left altogether, but his disgrace affected my father's military career, and then mine. Let's just say that negative feelings towards alien races runs in my family right alongside that disgrace. Is it right? Is it fair? No, I know that but...habits die hard." She shrugged with one shoulder, looking down at her work.

Kaidan just listened quietly as she continued. "I've been trying to get posted on a ship for years, and even with all my effort and commendations, I keep getting denied, because of my name. And then, out of nowhere, Shepard and you appear, and my whole life is changed. I've finally gotten what I wanted, but it comes with so much attached to it. I want to be ready for it, I want to prove to the Alliance and the rest of the galaxy that the Williams can be trusted. But can I, if it means disagreeing with the things I was taught as a child, and changing how I feel? How I react to them?" She motioned her arm in a wide arc, signifying all the species in the galaxy. She sighed. "It's just a lot, like I said to her. I want to get over it. I hope I can."

"You're a strong person, Ashley. You were the sole survivor back there, and you stayed focused during all the fighting. You did better than I did. If you can do all that, I know you can do this too, if it's what you want. Believe in yourself. You were trained to deal with hard situations, remember?"

She smiled up at Kaidan, her features relaxing. They'd been tense so long, he didn't even notice it until it was gone. Come to think of it, they'd been that way since Eden Prime. She looked almost like a different person, with a real smile instead of anxiety pinching her face. "Thanks, Kaidan."

"It was nothing." He smiled at her, then looked around the cargo bay. He shifted his weight from foot to foot for a moment, then cleared his throat. "I'm uh, going to go back up." He jerked his head in the direction of the elevator as he spoke. "It was nice talking to you, Ashley. See you around," he said awkwardly while walking backwards away from her. He waved, then turned quickly and fled.

_ Idiot_, he thought to himself. _Can't you just have a normal conversation with a new person without making things weird? No. No, you can't. It takes months of knowing someone before that stops. Idiot_, he thought again, as he waited for the glacial elevator to make its way up, taking him to his respective freedom.

Kaidan was sitting in the copilot chair next to Joker when a message notification popped up on his terminal. It was from Commander Shepard to the Normandy as a whole, and it wasn't marked urgent or private. He opened it, after seeing that Joker was in the middle of something delicate. It was a quick message stating that a krogan Battlemaster named Urdnot Wrex was coming aboard to join the mission, pending Captain Anderson's approval. Kaidan turned to Joker and said, "Hey, I think you should look at this."

Joker looked over briefly, then went back to what he was doing. "It's not marked urgent, gimme just a sec..." He tapped the holo keyboard quickly a few more times, and then shut down his program, finished. "Okay Biotic-boy, whadaya got?"

"It's a message from Shepard. She says to expect a krogan aboard, joining our ground team. His name is Urdnot Wrex, and he's a Battlemaster? Whatever that means. It's probably the same one we met at C-Sec. I don't think many krogans are on the Presidium."

"A krogan? Okay, but if he smashes my baby with his head or something, we're going to have problems."

"With his head?" Kaidan asked skeptically.

"Yeah, krogans like to use their skulls as blunt-force objects. They're not really good for anything else."

"And you've known a lot of krogans?" Kaidan said, raising an eyebrow.

Joker coughed. "I've seen plenty of extranet videos. Well, better warn the rest of the crew." He turned back to his terminal and accessed the intercom. "Attention Normandy, this is Flight Lieutenant Joker speaking. We will be welcoming a krogan into our ranks, so nobody freak out or shoot him, okay? He's Shepard's friend. Just play nice, and let me know if he smashes anything with his head. Joker out."

A few minutes later, a ping came from Joker's screen, and a window popped up showing a krogan on the other side of the airlock. "You have a live video feed of that room?" asked Kaidan.

"Yep, so keep that in mind if you ever bring a girl back. Make out with her there so I can watch, okay?" Joker said with that glint in his eye.

"Uh, no. I'm not that kind of guy, anyway." Kaidan said, smiling.

"Oh, you swing the other way? That's fine, I'd watch that too." he said, wickedly grinning.

Kaidan's face turned red as he stammered, "N-No! No, that's not what I meant! I just don't hook up, okay?"

"Uh huh, suuure. Whatever you say, Biotic-boy." Joker answered, purposely getting under Kaidan's skin. Poking him was especially fun because he never poked back.

Kaidan went to explain in further detail, but was saved that embarrassment by the door opening and permitting the large krogan to step through.

"Humans," said Wrex as a way of greeting.

"Scar-face," said Joker at the same time as Kaidan said, "Wrex."

Kaidan stood up, a little nervous, and said, "Here, let me show you where you can store your stuff." Belatedly, he added, "Uh, welcome aboard."

Wrex just grunted and followed Kaidan past the CIC and down the stairs. While they were in the elevator, Kaidan asked, "So, how did it go? Did you find Fist?"

"Yes. I killed him," Wrex answered shortly.

Kaidan fidgeted for a moment before continuing, "Did you find the quarian?"

"Yeah," grunted Wrex.

"And?" Kaidan prodded.

"And she had the information Shepard needed. They're taking it to the Council."

"Oh, okay then. That's good."

Wrex just looked at him through one baleful red eye. Kaidan avoided his gaze at all costs, nervously waiting for the elevator doors to open. Finally, they did. Kaidan stepped out first, followed by Wrex.

"This is the cargo bay," Kaidan said. "You can pick an empty locker over there," he said, motioning to the row of white compartments. He could see Ashley across the way, slowly reassembling the SMG she was working on, her attention focused on Wrex. He walked over to stand beside her supportively. "This is Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, and I'm Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. We're part of the ground team, like you."

Wrex slowly made his way to the lockers, inspecting his surroundings, and focused for a moment on the Mako. He looked over at the two humans, and nodded. "Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex," he said. He picked a random locker and stowed his assault rifle and shotgun inside. Then he leaned against some large crates nearby, looking for all the world like he was never going to move from that spot.

Ashley and Kaidan looked at each other wonderingly, but didn't say anything. Then Kaidan cleared his throat and said, "The mess is up one deck, and the sleeping quarters and the bathrooms. I guess I'll leave you to it." He nodded at Wrex, and gave Ashley one last worried look, before heading back up the incredibly slow elevator.

Kaidan was sitting at the mess table, wasting time on his omni-tool, sifting through barely-useful information on krogans and turians, when Shepard's voice came on over the intercom.

"This is Commander Shepard speaking. We have our orders: find Saren before he finds the Conduit. He has been stripped of his Spectre status, and I have been awarded the same. I am now the Commanding Officer of this vessel. I won't lie to you, crew. This mission isn't going to be easy. This began with an attack on a human settlement in the Traverse, but we know Saren won't stop there. His geth armies aren't going to stay on the far fringes of Citadel space hunting for that device. No population is safe! But our enemy knows we're coming. Wherever they search for the Conduit, we'll be there, fighting him back and protecting the civilians. We will hunt Saren to the very ends of the galaxy and bring him down.

"Humanity needs to do this. Not just for our own sake, but for the sake of every other species in Citadel Space. To that end, I have added three new members to our ground crew. Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, a krogan, has already come aboard. C-Sec Detective Garrus Vakarian, a turian, and Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, a quarian on her Pilgrimage, have also joined our team. They, along with the knowledge and expertise they bring, are invaluable to this mission. Saren must be stopped, and I promise you all...we will stop him!"

The intercom clicked off. Kaidan sat alone in stunned silence, his extranet investigation forgotten. Leave it to Shepard to strip Saren of his power, become the first human Spectre, commandeer the Normandy, and bring three different alien races aboard an entirely human ship all in the same day. He shook his head with a dazed smile on his face at her audacity. _That woman_, he thought. _That incredible woman._

He was still sitting there, staring off into space with a stupid smile on his face, when Shepard and the two newest team members came down the stairs. She was making her way around the deck, showing Garrus and Tali where everything was, when he shook himself back to reality. He stood and saluted her saying, "Congratulations, Commander! First human Spectre! I'm honoured to serve underneath you." He dropped his salute, and grinned at her, the most open expression he'd shown her in all their time together.

To his surprise and deep gratification, she grinned back, just as openly. "Thanks, Kaidan. I hope to continue to live up to your high expectations. And I hope all the goodies I brought back with me do too. But we can talk about those later, when I'm done playing tour guide."

"Of course, Shepard. I'll be here."

"Kaidan, I'm sure you remember Vakarian, and this is Tali. She was the one who actually had evidence on Saren, and knows a great deal about the geth. I'm sure her understanding of them will be incredibly useful to us. She's pretty handy with a shotgun, too," she said, motioning to the quiet young woman shrouded entirely in a purple and black enviro-suit. "And Vakarian's alright with a sniper," she added belatedly, looking at the turian with a wicked grin.

"If you recall, I beat you nine kills to eight, Shepard," Garrus said, looking down at her with his un-visored right eye.

"That's just the _current_ score, not the _final_ score," she retorted.

"Alright, currently I'm beating you, nine kills to eight."

"And this will be the last time you'll be able to say that, Vakarian," Shepard said with mock severity.

Kaidan watched their bantering with a sick feeling in his stomach. A few hours together, and Garrus was already closer to Shepard than Kaidan had managed in months. That was saying something, since their bunks were right next to each other. _I'm going to have to step up my game, if I even want to have a chance...Not that I have a chance. She's my superior, first of all, and second, she's Shepard! __The __r__uler of a whole planet wouldn't be worthy of her. __Not that I still won't try. Who knows what could happen after this mission is over? Maybe I'll be able to switch postings, and then..._ He let the thought trail off, not willing to consider such fantasies surrounded by the current company.

Tali stepped in, cutting off the competition. "Excuse me, Shepard, but I'd really like to see the drive core. Do you think you could show me where that is?"

Kaidan immediately liked the quarian. Her voice had an interesting accent to it, and he decided he liked that too. Maybe having aliens on the ship wouldn't be so bad, after all. As Shepard led the two back towards the elevator, Kaidan uncharacteristically called out, "It was nice to meet you, Tali! Hope to see you around!" and waved when they turned around to look at him. After they left, he groaned inwardly and kicked himself for acting so stupid.

Riela was in her new cabin, still trying to get used to the changes that had turned her life delightfully upside-down. It had been three days since the fateful one at the Citadel, and the Normandy was slowly making its way through the Artemis Tau cluster, scanning the nineteen planets scattered throughout the four solar systems. It was easy work, but tedious. Luckily, with Tali aboard running the scanners, they had discovered multiple caches of valuable minerals, and even some salvage that could be sold or traded when they made it back to civilization. It was a very profitable excursion, but time-consuming. When a mineral store was found, Shepard and two members of her ground team would take the Mako down to gather the resources, or tag them for later extraction. Since these missions were not high priority or particularly dangerous, Shepard took the opportunity to test the skills of her team.

Privately, she was focused on how well they all worked together. If there were any problem spots, she wanted to catch and fix them before they caused a major catastrophe during an important operation. So far, things looked like they were going fairly well. No major arguments or physical altercations had broken out, and all the misunderstandings had been minor and easily cleared up. But there was still a rigidness, an unsurety plaguing the group. They worked together, but they weren't a team.

She got up from her desk chair and began pacing the length of her room, her chin resting on her left hand as its elbow rested on her right arm held across her torso. Kaidan and Ashley worked well together, which could be expected, and all the members worked well with Shepard, but that was the extent of the camaraderie. Kaidan was shy and reserved, and didn't talk much to anyone, although he was friendly enough. Ashley was still uncomfortable around the other races, especially Garrus, but she did appear to be putting forth effort to overcome that. Wrex just intimidated the hell out of everyone, even herself, but she must have been doing an excellent job of hiding it, because Wrex was much more congenial to her than to anyone else. Maybe it was just respect, though. He also suffered from an understandably deep-rooted hatred of turians. Shepard doubted Wrex and Garrus would ever be best friends, but maybe an in-between of this and that could be reached. Tali was another shy one, used to the hatred and derision from the whole galaxy beating down on her concealed shoulders. She was gradually coming to see that the Normandy crew didn't see her in the same light, especially the engineers and Joker, all of them having a deep love of the ship, but it was slow going.

Garrus, now...Garrus was another whole solar system compared to the rest of them. Having worked on the Citadel for years alongside humans led to an obvious easiness between himself, Ashley, Kaidan, and Shepard...at least on his side. Riela wasn't exactly sure what was causing the stiffness between Kaidan and Garrus, but she hoped is would dissipate soon. He got along decently with Tali; they had advanced tech skills and a dextro-based lifestyle in common. And he didn't spend too much of his time saying abrasive things to Wrex, he mostly just avoided interaction with the krogan. Out of all the team, it seemed he was the only other one trying to make this a cohesive unit.

It was probably because of his upbringing. The turian militaristic manner depended heavily on teamwork and trust. The whole was viewed as more important than any individual, and that rule permeated every aspect of their lives. Shepard likened them to a mix of Ancient Chinese and Ancient Roman people, but that was still only a rough estimation. It was ridiculous to assume that anything turian was a replica of something human. Just because there were a few basic similarities, it didn't mean that they actually had anything in common.

Riela sighed. She had meant to spend her free time intensely researching those new species she had welcomed on board, in an effort to avoid confusion between everyone. Now that she was a Spectre, information that was classified before was delightfully available to her. But becoming CO had dumped much more responsibility in her lap than she had been anticipating, especially with non-humans aboard. She had instead spent all her extra time making sure their needs were met and that they were equally as comfortable as the humans. And now that that was taken care of, she had this new problem of lack of unity among her people. She knew it would probably fade in time on its own, but she couldn't wait for that to happen before chasing down Saren, and she couldn't risk a dangerous mission being executed by people who didn't trust each other.

She glanced absently her omni-tool, and realized with a start that it was almost her dinnertime. An idea suddenly sprouting to life in her mind, she went over to her intercom to talk to Joker. "Joker, where are we in the Artemis Tau cluster?"

"We've just finished scanning the last planet in the Macedon system, and now we're en route to the Sparta system."

"What's our ETA?"

"We'll arrive at the first planet tomorrow around 1100, fourteen hours from now."

"Thanks, Joker. Shepard out."

She went over to her side table that kept her non-military personal effects, and retrieved a small plastic box. She slipped it into her pocket, a smile feathering her face, and sauntered out to the mess. It was time for some team-building exercises.

She ate her dinner at a table with the rest of the ground team. Nearby, other members of her crew from the CIC and engineering, also including Dr. Chakwas, sat eating theirs. Meals were served in two shifts so stations stayed manned, and this was the second one. Tonight's supper was spaghetti with meat sauce for the humans, unknown strange-smelling provisions for Garrus and Tali, and something entirely made of once-breathing protein for Wrex. Everyone was relishing actually edible food, and Shepard allowed them to indulge for now. Eventually, all the delicious meals would be gone, and they'd be back to reconstituted, rehydrated MREs. As people finished eating, they left their trays in the sink or on the counter of the galley before heading back to work or to the crew quarters for sleep.

Before any of the ground crew could get up, Shepard stood and cleared her throat. They all looked at her expectantly, Kaidan and Ashley craning their heads to look up from their seats next to her. "It's come to my attention that although we're in this together, we're not working together. This could be a very serious problem, and it needs immediate action. Whatever your duties were after dinner are now inconsequential to you. If you feel it's necessary, reassign them to someone else, on my orders. We are going to work on team-building exercises. Finish your meal at your leisure, and then sit back down."

Shepard had to try hard to keep a grin off her face at the expressions of those around her. The way she had purposely phrased it, team-building exercises sounded like it was going to be grueling. She carried her tray to the counter, and then sat back down impassively, folding her hands in front of her on the table, waiting. There was now a palpable tension in the air, as people looked furtively to one another, no one saying anything. They finished their meals in silence, and returned to the table after putting their dishes in the sink. Shepard continued to say nothing, and slowly reached under the table and into her pocket to pull out the plastic box she had put there earlier.

"Okay, boys and girls, the game is Skyllian-Five." She paused for a moment as faces visibly relaxed and even a few chuckles could be heard. She grinned widely, opening the box and started shuffling the cards. "Since this is just a team-building exercise, we'll bet with points...this time. Everyone starts with five hundred, and I'll keep track on my omni-tool, if you trust me to be fair. Any questions?" She looked around, but no one had anything to say. "Alright, let's get started," she said, as she began to deal.

Hours into the game, the mood in the mess was drastically different. They had to keep reminding each other to be quiet because other people were trying to sleep in the quarters nearby. Jokes and jibes were flying around the table faster than the cards that Ashley dealt, and Wrex, even though he was all out of points, remained seated, one of the team, still making wisecracks about Shepard's bluffs.

Kaidan was the next to go out; he played too conservatively. He remained seated next to Shepard, enjoying the energy of the table, and enjoying the proximity of her. Shepard kept catching him looking at her, and she'd try to meet his eyes and smile, but he'd quickly avert his eyes before she could. It was frustrating. Why was he avoiding her after choosing to sit next to her? As Tali was placing her bet across the way, Shepard casually uncrossed her legs, seeming for all the world to accidentally bump into Kaidan's under the table. The unexpected contact made him look up suddenly, and he was caught in her friendly trap. She finally got to smile at him.

"Hey," she said.

"Uh, hey," he answered shyly.

"How's it going over there?"

"Fine, I guess. How's it going with you?"

Shepard, in the lead with points, upped the bet dramatically, and ignoring the indignant shouts from around the table, she turned back to Kaidan. "Pretty well, I'd say." She grinned, but didn't say anything more to see if Kaidan would take control of the conversation. He didn't, so before the silence became awkward, she asked, "How are you enjoying my brand of team-building exercises? Are they too audacious? Should I just go back to the Alliance standards of dumping us all in an unexplored jungle on a backwater planet and seeing how it goes?"

"No, no I think this is a nice change. And it may work even better than their way. Fewer wounds, at least." They both took a moment to look around the table as everyone but Tali and Shepard folded. Ashley was pretending to pout, but as Garrus ribbed her, she looked indignant, then laughed. Everyone else joined in, the cards forgotten for a moment. Shepard met Kaidan's eyes again and smiled warmly, which he returned. She turned her attention back to Tali, determining if the quarian was bluffing or not. The smoky purple mask that hid all but her glowing eyes made reading her expressions nearly impossible, but Shepard was getting better at it, she thought. She decided her competitor was bluffing, and raised the stakes. Tali met her gaze, then matched and raised. Shepard matched and raised with no hesitation. The simulated pot was getting quite large, and the spectators quieted down to watch. Tali remained inexorable and matched Shepard's final bid. They both showed their hands at the same time, and a roar went up as Tali virtually raked it all in.

"You were bluffing the whole time? You _must_ have a quad!" blurted Kaidan.

Shepard laughed at his brashness, and her eyes sparkled as she looked down at her completely useless hand. "Yep! I figured, 'Why the hell not, they're just points anyway'. I thought Tali was bluffing too, though," she admitted.

"Keelah, Shepard. That was so risky!" Tali looked at her with wide luminous eyes.

"Yeah, but the stakes weren't high. Just points, not lives or anything. I play by different rules for different games, don't worry."

"I'm not, I just can't believe you pulled that off! I had no idea you were bluffing, I just thought we both had really good hands."

"Hey, go hard or go home, right?" interjected Ashley.

"Right," said Shepard grinning her way. She looked down at her omni-tool. "The standings are now Tali in the lead with 1250, Garrus with 700, me with 550, and Ashley bringing up the rear with 500. It's also the early hours of a new day, Galactic Standard Time, and I'm going to get out while I'm ahead," she said while she stood up. "I'm taking what's left of my points and dignity with me. Someone take over keeping score. You three have at it and let me know who comes out on top, alright?" she directed towards the table.

"Running away, Shepard? Afraid I'll beat you at this too?" taunted Garrus with his smooth, rumbling voice.

"Think what you want, Vakarian, but Tali's the one who beat me, and who's currently beating you. Let's see if you can barely eke by her like you did me back on the Citadel," she teased back as she slid the deck across to him. "Your deal. Goodnight, everyone. I'll see you tomorrow. We should hit the next planet at 1100. Maybe we'll find what we're looking for there."

Her crew, sitting around the table, relaxed in each other's company, bid her a good night. Shepard's heart swelled with pride looking at them, and then she headed up to the CIC for one last check before bed. It was quiet up there, with only the skeleton crew working. She looked over their route on the galaxy map, and studied where else they had left to look for Dr. T'Soni. All anyone knew was that she was somewhere in this cluster, one lone asari among four solar systems. _It's like that old Earth phrase...what was it? Oh yes, a needle in a haystack,_ she thought to herself. Everything was exactly as it should be, so she headed back down the stairs, lost in thought. She quite literally ran into Kaidan at the bottom.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" she said, catching him by the shoulders before he fell into the wall. "I wasn't paying any attention. Are you alright?"

Kaidan locked eyes with her, and it took a moment before he came to himself and answered, "Yes, I'm fine."

Shepard could feel the hard muscles of his upper arms under her hands, her fingers not even wrapping halfway around them. He always seemed so shy to her, she kept forgetting that he was a battle-hardened marine. She knew it, she'd seen him in action plenty of times, but the Kaidan on the battlefield and the Kaidan on the ship seemed like two completely different people to her. She let go of him, her hands sliding off in wonder. Silence seemed to wrap around them, the raucous laughter around the corner unheard, the crew members forgotten. For just a moment, time stood still.

Then Shepard's brain began working again, and she noticed his toiletries scattered on the floor. "Here, let me help you," she said quickly, trying to act as if they hadn't just been staring into each other's eyes for seconds uncounted. She started picking things up off the floor haphazardly, fumbling with some of the bottles trying to put them back into his caddy. He was gathering up his toothpaste, toothbrush and hairbrush that had all bounced the other direction, and she accidentally caught a very good look at him bending over in front of her while she knelt on the floor. His uniform pants being pulled tight by his position left very little to the imagination. Stunned yet again by his musculature, she stopped picking things up. When he stood to turn around, she hurriedly looked around for something that would make her look busy and saw his towel still in a mostly neat bundle nearby. She grabbed it and yanked it toward her, spilling out its contents of Kaidan's pajamas. _Could this get any more embarrassing?_ she thought, too chagrined to look and see what Kaidan was doing. She tossed the towel onto the caddy, and crawled over to the clothing to pick it up. Shirt, pants, underwear. _Yep, more embarrassing._ She wadded them together in her hands, trying not to focus too much on what she was holding, and stood up. She shoved them into his arms, and tried to smile as calmly as if picking up handsome subordinates' underwear off the floor was a completely normal, everyday occurrence.

"Here you go, sorry about that," she said, trying to maintain an air of poise, but just coming across as flustered.

Kaidan, already blushing, said, "Thanks."

Not wanting to make things more awkward later by bolting to the elevator without a backward glance now, she tried instead to diffuse the situation with conversation. "So, you decided to not hang around and watch the rest of the game?"

"Yeah, it seemed like a good idea to go to bed with you." Realizing how what he said could be construed, he tried to clarify. "Not with you! Like you! To do the same as you!" Shepard watched with some amusement as his face turned even redder. At least she wasn't the only one reacting to the situation poorly.

"Calm down Kaidan, I understand. How about we both say goodnight, and leave it at that before anything else happens, alright?" She wanted to tease him about his red face, but thought better of it.

"Yeah, okay. Goodnight, Shepard," he said awkwardly.

She smiled at him, that twinkle back in her eyes. "Goodnight, Kaidan. Sleep well." She turned and walked over to the elevator, focusing on keeping her steps slow and steady, not running like she wanted to do. Thankfully, the door slid open immediately, and she was able to escape Kaidan's burning eyes on her back. She gave him one last smile and wave before stepping into the little space.

After the door closed, she exhaled a large pent up breath. She scrubbed her forehead with the back of her hand and tried to slow her heart rate. When the elevator reached the bottom, she exited and headed for engineering. She always slept better if she personally checked on the vital areas of the Normandy before going to bed. She glanced over the holo-screens, and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, turned to the solitary engineer. The man overseeing the operations said everything was running at optimal levels, and nothing untoward had happened the whole time he'd been there. Nodding her thanks, she bid him a goodnight, and headed out to go back upstairs.

When she walked back into the cargo bay, she saw Wrex and Tali stepping out of the elevator. "Game's over? Who won?" she asked. Tali spun around quickly, surprised, but Wrex just turned his head to look at her, then continued on his way over to the lockers.

"Keelah Shepard, you startled me! You really need to stop doing that," said Tali with a hand to her chest. "I won. Ashley went out right after you, and then Garrus and I went head to head. We were bidding carelessly at that point, and the last hand we both just went all in. It was getting late anyway, and we wanted to go to bed. Tomorrow could be a very busy day."

"I'm hoping you're right. I'm starting to get restless. Who knows what Saren could be up to while we're collecting rocks. Valuable rocks, but still... Well, I'll let you two get to bed then. That's where I'm finally headed, now that I've done my final walkthrough. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Shepard," Tali said, headed down to the starboard hallway that led to engineering. Since there were two passageways, and since Tali preferred to hear the engine running at all times, they had put a cot for her in the second one. People could still use it if they needed to, but everyone knew that was Tali's room now, and just stuck to the port-side walkway.

Wrex, too large for any cot or bed they could find, had some mats that stacked on top of each other for his bed near the lockers. He rolled them up and stored them during the day, but it only took a few minutes to ready his bed at night. As massive as he was, the cargo bay floor gave him plenty of room to sprawl out. He hadn't even wanted to use the mats in the beginning, krogan pride being what it was, but since they were already there, Shepard had convinced him to. He had just finished rolling them out when he turned to her and said, "Shepard," like he always did.

"Wrex," she answered in kind, and then strode into the elevator and activated the panel for deck two. _Kaidan should be well into his shower by now, and I won't have to worry about running into him again until tomorrow_, she thought to herself as the elevator rose, breathing a sigh of relief. Then she had to try to not think about him in the shower. "Gah!" she said out loud, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands.

The door slid open and Shepard took a moment to listen. Both the women's and the men's showers were running, but there was only silence other than that. She quietly stepped out, and headed around to her cabin. As she turned the corner, she could see Garrus nonchalantly leaning against the wall next to her door, his arms crossed over his torso, one cloven foot propped up behind him. Her heart caught in her chest, and her breathing hitched, but through sheer force of will she maintained her pace.

Three days on the ship together, and nothing had changed. If anything, it had gotten worse. She kept trying to convince herself that the attraction would go away, that the fascination with him would fade, but it appeared that wasn't working. The most frustrating thing about it all was how it came about inadvertently. _Physical attraction to a complete stranger? Who does that? Me, apparently. I couldn't get to know him first and __**then**__ be attracted to him, no no,_ she thought sarcastically. And the trouble was, the more time she did spend with him, the more she did get to know him, the more she liked him for who he was. She slowed her steps as she neared, stopping in front of him, and mimicked his pose, leaning back with arms crossed, cocking one eyebrow.

"Shepard," he said, his voice low in the stillness. "I wanted to make sure these were returned to you." He stood up and unfolded his arms, holding out her pack of cards. She reached out and took them, the moment of their hands almost touching seemed to last eons in her mind.

"Thanks," she said quietly.

"That was good thinking, getting us all together to do something casual. I think the tension is finally broken," his voice vibrated in her chest, the subharmonics caressing her ear.

"Yeah, I don't expect one game to change everything overnight, but I was hoping that some walls would come down. I'm glad it worked," she answered, looking down at her hands fiddling with the plastic box there, and shifting her weight from foot to foot.

"I hope we do it again sometime."

"I'm sure we will. It was a lot of fun, and I found it relaxing." She braced herself, and then met his eyes with hers, smiling up at him.

"Shepard, I just wanted to tell you how thankful I am for you allowing me to come aboard. Back at C-Sec I was caught by all the red tape, unable to do anything useful. But now that I'm working with a Spectre, I'm finally free to do things my way."

She raised an eyebrow at him, her smile fading. "As long as your way is the right way and not the fast way. We don't endanger civilians, remember?" He looked away in embarrassment, remembering Dr. Michel's office, his mandibles clicking in agitation. Shepard continued, saying, "The laws are there for a reason, and even though sometimes they do get in the way of good people trying to do the right thing, I'm not just going to go around breaking them because I can. I hope I can count on you to follow my orders, even if you don't agree with them."

He looked back up at her, his mandibles slack in shock. "Of course! I never meant to imply- I may not be a very good turian, but I will follow your orders, Shepard."

"Good. But if you do ever disagree with them, I give you leave to come and discuss them with me in private. I want to know the opinions of those beneath my command. There's an ancient quote from back on Earth that says, 'Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' I don't want to become that kind of person. There has to be someone in the lead, but this is still a team, and we all need to depend on each other, including me depending on all of you."

Garrus just looked at her for a moment, an undefinable expression on his face as his subharmonics purred quietly. "Shepard, the more I get to know you, the more you astound me. I've never met a human quite like you before."

"I think I'll take that as a compliment," she said, the smile returning to her face, a warmth like sunlight rising in her chest.

"It was meant as one. Sleep well, Shepard."

"Sleep well," she replied quietly, watching him walk away.

Riela turned and swiped her hand across the access panel of her cabin door. It turned from red to green at her touch, and the door slid open. She stepped inside, her mind light-years away. She sat her cards down on her desk as she passed, and dropped down onto the edge of her bed. She flopped over backwards, her hands folded over her stomach, and her mind racing through all the events of the last five hours.

Her plan had achieved its goal; in all honesty it had went much better than expected. And then her 'rendezvous' with Kaidan. She put one hand over her eyes and groaned. During the game she had just been trying to get him to open up to her. He'd seemed to be more shy than usual around her lately, and it bothered her. They normally had a friendly work relationship, but it just never seemed to grow past a warm acquaintance. In an instant of well-formed muscles and close proximity it had moved far, far past that on Shepard's side of the encounter. Now she was intrigued. What was he really like? Did he like being in the military, or was he just doing it out of some sort of obligation? What did he do for fun? Poker obviously wasn't it. She didn't see him being the type to frequent clubs. What kind of girls did he date? Did he even date girls? Riela thought he did. He did seem to suffer from severe foot-in-mouth disease around her and Ashley. She chuckled to herself thinking about the 'go to bed with you' incident. Kaidan was just a really sweet guy with an awkward streak and a thick shell.

Shells weren't such a bad thing, even Riela had one. Garrus had one. His was visible, though. Thinking of him set the fire burning through her veins with a vengeance, making her squirm onto her side, her head pillowed on one arm. Even in her own mind he overwhelmed her, dragging her focus back to him. Well, why fight it now? She was alone in her cabin, in the middle of the night. Who was going to see what she was thinking about and tell her it was inappropriate and scandalous?

_I know relations between humans and turians have come a long way in twenty-six years, but this – if it ever became anything – might be too much for people to handle._ She snorted to herself. _If it ever became anything? Who am I kidding? He's an effing turian. He's not interested in humans. Why would he be? I'm like the complete physical opposite of their kind. What do we have? Blunt teeth, blunt fingers, smooth skin...squishy. Not attractive to them __at all__. They're like war incarnate. Razor blade teeth, dagger talons, built-in __protection__. _She smiled to herself, trying to imagine what he looked like under his armor. What _did_ turians look like? Were they plated all over? How did they...have relations?

She rubbed her face with her hands, and flung herself up off the bed. Years with nothing, or nearly nothing, and now she was attracted to not one, but two men under her command. How old was she, seventeen? Last she checked, she was twenty-nine. _I should probably start acting like it instead of spending all my free time ogling boys.__I have a mass murderer to stop and a galaxy to __fuck__ing save. __Okay. Shower, bed, work. __No more men, __especially subordinates._

That night as she lie in bed tossing and turning, trying to get her mind off two engrossing inamoratos so she could sleep, two very different men in separate rooms struggled to find sleep themselves for a very similar reason.


	6. Chapter 5 - Edolus

**A/N: BioWare owns the Mass Effect Universe. I originally wrote this chapter and the next as one, but when I realized it was twenty-four pages long, I split them up. This chapter has a lot of stuff I wasn't intending to write (I had forgotten about the side mission on Edolus in the Artemis Tau cluster, which they would certainly discover with their careful searching), and a scene at the end with Garrus and Shepard just happened. I thought it fit so well with them and the story that I kept it. So the next chapter is a little shorter than I usually aim for, but I like how it ends, so this update gets two chapters instead of one, woo! Let me know what you guys think, I am always eager to hear from my readers. Thank you to all the new followers, to the followers who have been around, and to anyone who reviewed or commented or PMed me. I love you guys!**

Chapter 5 – Edolus

Shepard opened her bleary eyes when the alarm on her omni-tool made it quite clear it was time to be about her duties. After the late night of poker, and then the refusal of her mind to let things go, she'd only gotten three hours of sleep; 0600 came much too early. She rubbed her face roughly in an attempt to make her brain start working, yawned, then stretched. She sluggishly donned a clean uniform, made herself look presentable in her tiny bathroom, and headed out to the mess for some much needed coffee, grabbing a datapad off her desk as she passed.

She was the first to arrive, just as she liked it, and fixed herself some of the special real coffee with sugar and cream. Exceptional occasions called for exceptional coffee, and today was one of those days. She sat down at one of the tables and began to look over her datapad while sipping the hot liquid. Other crew members began to filter in quietly getting coffee or tea and sitting down, murmuring to each other in small groups. The serviceman in charge of breakfast began clattering around in the galley, preparing to make eggs, bacon, and toast, more of those wonderful rare components that were sure to run out before anyone was ready to give them up.

Mornings were usually a quiet affair until people began to actually wake up. Just as the volume began to rise to normal alertness level, Shepard saw Kaidan walk around the corner, looking just as tired as she felt. He saw her looking at him, and stopped walking for a moment. Shepard could tell he was deciding whether to turn back around or come over and talk. She tried to smile reassuringly, and he seemed to relax. He gave a tiny smile back, and went to get some breakfast. She watched him surreptitiously, intent on waving him over when he went to sit down, in case he wasn't planning on sitting next to her himself. The last thing she wanted was more awkwardness between them, and realizing she knew almost nothing about him, she was determined learn something and become his friend in the process.

When Kaidan turned back around with his laden tray, he hesitantly walked towards Shepard, and with her insistent wave, proceeded with more certainty and sat down across from her.

"Good morning," she said, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Good morning," he replied in his warm voice that was husky with sleep.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Uh, yes," answered Kaidan. Shepard raised an eyebrow at his pause, her eyes burning into his. Under her scrutiny, his face blossomed into redness. "Well, once I fell asleep I did," he amended, looking down at his scrambled eggs.

"I had a little trouble falling asleep myself. Last night was quite eventful, don't you think? First, the exciting poker game, and then our little mishap. But people bump into each other all the time, right? So why should we worry about it?" she asked with a shrug.

Kaidan looked up, curious to see if Shepard was serious, or was just trying to mollify him. She seemed genuine in her opinion of the situation, so he released all his pent up stress and actually smiled at her. "You're right. We shouldn't let a little accident bother us so much."

"Good, I'm glad you feel that way. It will be so much easier to be your friend if we don't have to be awkward around each other all the time," Shepard said smiling, relaxing back into her chair, taking her mug with her.

"I'd like that, Shepard."

"So would I." She waited to see if Kaidan was going to say anything more, but he looked at a loss for words. She decided to help him out. "So, poker's not your strong suit."

"No, not really. Betting and risks make me nervous, if they're not under the right circumstances. In the field I do fine putting myself out there in danger, but places where I should be more relaxed usually just make me more tense."

"I have noticed that you're more reserved and controlled than most biotics I've met. More than most people across the board, actually."

"Yeah," Kaidan answered, not wanting to elaborate.

Shepard could tell by his body language that whatever caused this was uncomfortable to him, and moved the conversation smoothly past it without a noticeable pause. "So, what do you do for fun, then? Dance the night away?"

Kaidan relaxed at her non-questions about his past, and smirked at her suggestion of his pastimes. "No, I mostly just keep to myself and read. I've always read for fun. When I was little, I read books about heroes who went to space to prove themselves worthy of women they loved, or uh, you know, justice," he ducked his head, a little embarrassed.

"Well well, you're a romantic," she said with a twinkle in her eyes. "Did you sign on for the dream, Kaidan? Did you want to secure man's future in space, maybe find a nice girl somewhere out here and settle down on a colony?"

"Yeah, maybe I was a romantic in the beginning, but I thought about it after Brain Camp, oh sorry, Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training. I'm not looking for the dream anymore, I just want to do some good. See what's out here."

"What was BAaT like, if you don't mind talking about it?" Shepard asked with sincere curiosity. She'd never met a biotic who had attended; all the ones she knew had been part of the Ascension Project after Jump Zero had been shut down.

"No, it's fine. First, we didn't call it Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training, or BAaT. To the kids they hauled in, it was Brain Camp. Sorry, 'hauled in' is unkind. We were _encouraged_ to 'commit to an evaluation of our abilities so an understanding of biotics could be compiled'. There are worse results of accidental exposure to element zero in the womb. Going to Brain Camp beat the brain tumors some kids grew up with," Kaidan answered, talking carefully around mouthfuls of food.

"Do you know how you were exposed?" Shepard asked, sitting forward with interest.

"My mother was downwind of a transport crash. It was before there were human biotics, a little after the discovery of the Martian ruins. Exposure stories only get iffy around '63 when Conatix was running out of first gen subjects. Until then, they'd relied on 'accidentals'. A bunch a guys in suits show up at your door after school, and the next thing you know, you're out at Jump Zero."

Shepard frowned a little, trying to follow Kaidan's disorganized explanation. "Do you know of anyone who was exposed intentionally?"

"No. No one knows. It doesn't mean it didn't happen. As big as the exposures were, it was hard to track down accidentals. It was different then, no one knew the potential, so there wasn't a lot of regulation. Anything Conatix did was gold. I'm not saying they intentionally detonated drives over our outposts, but in retrospect, they were damn quick on the scene."

Kaidan seemed to be growing agitated talking about the eezo crises, so Shepard asked about something else. "All those kids stuck out there on a space station with no outside contact allowed, you must have made friends."

"There was a circle of us that would get together before lights out. Not much to do, boring, no extranet," Kaidan answered, shrugging.

Shepard raised an eyebrow, a smile twitching the corners of her mouth. "A big group of teenagers trapped in space, I'm sure you found...other ways to occupy your time. I know you didn't play poker to wile away the hours."

He smiled at the jibe and shook his head in answer. "I'm not the sort who does that kind of thing, poker or otherwise. Not lightly, anyway. There was a girl I spent a lot of time with." At Shepard's expression, he clarified further. "We kept our clothes on. Her name was Rahna. She was from Turkey, and her family was very rich. But she was smart, and charming as hell. Beautiful, but not stuck up about it. Like you." Kaidan blanched at his accidental revelation, and then blushed. He looked down and finished his breakfast.

Shepard laughed gently, but otherwise ignored his slip. "It sounds like Rahna was special to you," she said.

"She was," he admitted. "Maybe she felt the same, I don't know. Things never fell together. Training took up all our focus. It looked a lot better on the vids." Kaidan sat back and rubbed his eyes with the fingers and thumb of one hand. "Sorry, Shepard. I didn't mean to go on about things that happened years ago like that."

He was secretly worried that she would think that Rahna still meant something to him, that he wasn't mentally available for a new relationship, which he was. Rahna had been half his lifetime ago, and since then there had only been one other until now. If he was being honest with himself, he was more than ready to find someone new.

"Don't blame yourself, Kaidan. I was the one who was asking all the questions. I just wanted to get to know you better. Thanks for talking to me," she said with a warm smile.

"Uh, you're welcome. So, uh, do you make a habit of getting to know everyone this personally?"

"I do, but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy your company. I wasn't talking to you out of a sense of duty or obligation, Kaidan. I hope I get another chance to do this again, soon." She reached across the table and laid her hand over his, giving it a little squeeze before pulling it back.

Kaidan's face tinged pink at the implications. "I'll uh, I'll need some time to process that, Shepard. But, yeah, I'd like that."

"I'll see you around," Shepard said with a smile, getting up from the table. She handed her empty mug to the serviceman in the galley, then headed up the stairs to the CIC, a spring in her step.

After checking both with Joker and the galaxy map and seeing that the Normandy was still on schedule to reach the planet Alsages at 1100, four hours away, she headed down to engineering to talk to Tali. She hadn't really had the opportunity to just talk about tech and engines and stealth systems with her for hours like she had wanted. She was honestly excited to have another technophile aboard, especially one from a completely different culture. The insights they could share; the brainstorming sessions they could have! She shifted impatiently in the elevator, anxious to have a spirited and knowledgeable conversation about the Normandy.

When she walked into engineering, she looked around, but didn't see Tali anywhere. She walked over to Engineer Adams, preparing to ask him if he'd seen her.

"Good morning, Engineer Adams. Have you seen Tali around? I wanted to ask her some questions."

"Sorry, Shepard, can't say that I have. Usually she hovers, watching, asking questions, making suggestions," he said.

"She's not bothering anybody or getting in the way, is she?" It seemed to Shepard that Tali got along great with the engineering crew, but she wanted to double-check with the head of the department.

"What? No! She's amazing! I wish my guys were half as smart as she is. Give her a month on board and she'll know more about our engines than I do! She's got a real knack for technology, that one. I can see why you wanted her to come along. You've got an eye for talent, Shepard."

"Well that's good. I didn't think she was, but I wanted to make sure everyone was getting along. I know sometimes bringing in outside help can make people feel offended, like they don't matter or they're not good enough. I don't want that to happen; we were all hand-picked because we're all the best at what we do."

"I'll just pass that along to the guys, if you don't mind. A little morale boost never hurt anyone," Adams said with a smile.

"Not at all, Adams. That's why I said it."

Just then, the starboard doorway whooshed open and Tali stepped through, coming out of her little 'room'. She saw Shepard and hurried over. "Shepard, is there something you needed?" she asked, rubbing her hands over each other nervously.

"Just your company, Tali. We haven't really had a chance to talk yet, and I've been really looking forward to us picking each other's brains," she said with a smile.

"I assume that is a euphemism for conjoined thought processes."

Shepard laughed. "Yes, conjoined thought processes, exactly. We both grew up on ships, immersed in their workings. I thought we could have a friendly discussion about the Normandy, maybe see if we could come up with ways to improve her. A daunting task, but still worth the effort, right?" she asked, then continued, "I take it you haven't had breakfast yet." She thought for a moment, a little surprised at herself. "Actually, neither have I. Let's go talk and eat at the same time. Is that alright?"

"That sounds great, Shepard."

"Good, I'm starving."

Shepard and Tali's discussion began with the Normandy's drive core, but progressed to her stealth systems, and then meandered into other areas like the ventilation shafts and the types of wiring used. They ate without tasting their food, oblivious to their surroundings, focused only on having someone to talk about such things with. Most people didn't even know about this stuff, and the ones who did almost never got excited over it. It was nice to have someone around that shared a common interest.

After the topic of the Normandy's inner workings was exhausted, they moved on to more personal subjects, such as their childhoods, which happened to be quite similar. It was all very interesting, but Shepard was consumed with curiosity about the quarian culture. "The quarians are an entirely space-faring society. How exactly does that work? I mean, our upbringings are comparable, but not having a planet to return to, or laws and regulations based on the way things work planet-side, it must have deep ramifications."

"It does. There are seventeen million quarians in the flotilla, and each of us relies on the others for survival. The bonds among my people are strong. Unfortunately, we have had to surrender many of the freedoms and civil liberties other species take for granted."

"Like what?" asked Shepard.

"Well, it's illegal for parents to have more than one child. If our population grows too much, it would strain our resources to their breaking point. Of course, we also can't allow our numbers to grow too few. If our population is in decline, the rule against single births is temporarily repealed. In extreme cases of population decline, incentives are even offered to encourage multiple births. Though the Conclave hasn't had to take such measures in nearly a century," Tali answered.

"And the Conclave is your government? How does it work?"

"The Conclave is our civilian branch of government," she explained. "Each ship can elect a representative to serve on the Conclave and make decisions that affect the fleet as a whole. On matters that affect an individual ship, however, the captain has the final say. It's a tradition that dates back to the early days when the fleet was governed by martial law. Fortunately, most captains nowadays are smart enough to have an elected council from their crew to give them advice and guidance."

Shepard nodded her understanding. "If that's your civilian branch, what other branches do you have?"

"In practice, the Conclave and the respective council for each ship tend to set the rules that govern our daily lives. But in theory we are still under military jurisdiction. The five top-ranking military officials in the fleet serve on the Admiralty Board. These five have the power to overrule any decision made by the Conclave in case of emergency. To do so requires unanimous agreement among the Admiralty and they can only do this once. After that, the entire Board must resign their posts. It's a safeguard that's served us well. In nearly three centuries, the Admiralty Board has only overruled the Conclave four times."

"So this way, they can control the entire fleet when it's absolutely necessary, but it would be pointless to do so as a means of gain, because as soon as they did, they'd lose their position of power. That's a fantastic failsafe to keep people from being corrupted by their authority."

"Yes, it works surprisingly well in that aspect. There are still ways for them to use their influence for personal gain, though."

"People will always find a way to use what they have to get what they want," Shepard agreed. "So, what about this Pilgrimage you're on? You explained some of it before, but how does it affect ship life?"

"When my people reach maturity, we leave our birth ships and seek acceptance with a new crew. It's necessary to maintain genetic diversity among the fleet. But no ship wants to accept someone who will be a burden on them. So, to prove our worth, we embark on a Pilgrimage. We set out alone, leaving the flotilla and our families behind us. We only return once we have found something of value we can bring back to the fleet. This is presented as a gift to the captain of the respective ship we wish to join. If the gift is accepted, we are welcomed into the crew."

"If the gift is accepted? Does that mean sometimes it's not?" Shepard asked.

"Not often. Most captains are eager to increase the size of their crew. It increases their own standing in our society. Even when a gift is not particularly valuable, a captain usually accepts it out of a sense of tradition. However, there is a stigma to presenting a sub-standard gift. It's not the best way to make a good impression on a new community. Most Pilgrims don't return until they find something worthwhile."

"So the gift you bring is not kept secret. Interesting. They must prepare you for the world outside the flotilla, though. Is that what the enviro-suits are for?"

"Not really. They give us implants to fight off sickness and disease, but we wear these suits even in the flotilla. Quarian immune systems have always been relatively weak, as pathogenic microbes were comparatively rare in our homeworld's biosphere. The few viruses and other microbes that were native to Rannoch were often at least partly beneficial to us, causing a symbiotic relationship between us and the planet. After living aboard the Migrant Fleet for generations, our immune systems have atrophied further still due to the years in the sterile environment. Any little opening in our suits, a tear or a hole, can lead to serious infection. If that occurs, they can be compartmentalized to prevent, or at least slow, the spread of contaminants. It's similar to a ship sealing off bulkheads in the event of a hull breach."

"That's very elaborate. But then, how do you...nevermind," Shepard said, realizing she was overstepping her bounds as CO, and knowing they weren't close enough friends yet for that kind of question.

Tali chuckled. "That is also very elaborate."

Just then, Joker's voice came on over the intercom. "Shepard, we're only about ten minutes out from Alsages. Thought you'd want to know."

"What? Is it that late already? Where did the time go? Thanks, Joker. I'll be up in a minute." She grinned at Tali, rising from the table and stretching her stiff muscles from sitting in one spot so long. "I guess it's time for both of us to get busy. Maybe I'll come down later and you can show me what exactly it is that you're doing that's finding us all these caches we'd normally miss. You know, if we don't find Dr. T'soni here."

"Anytime, Shepard," Tali answered, and then took the elevator down while Shepard took the stairs up two at a time.

They didn't find the illusive doctor there, only plutonium. The rest of the day and night passed uneventfully, scanning an asteroid belt, Ontamalca, and Altaaya. The next morning after breakfast, Shepard was in the cockpit looking over Joker's shoulder as they came up onto Edolus. A small alarm sounded, drawing Joker's attention, and his fingers started flipping through so many holo-screens so quickly that Shepard couldn't follow.

"What is it?" she asked.

"A distress signal coming from a beacon planet-side. Looks like your quiet days of poker and lazing around are over, Shepard."

"Any details available?" Gone was her amiable demeanor, her serious commander persona in its place.

"No, it's just a general Alliance distress," Joker answered, still scrolling through screens. Shepard was thankful that he, like her, could turn his business attitude on when it was needed.

"How long until we can get a ground team deployed?"

"Twenty minutes."

"Williams! Tali!" Shepard snapped over the intercom. "Suit up and report to the Mako in fifteen minutes. I'll explain on the way down."

Strapped into the Mako, waiting for the cargo bay door to open and expel them into the atmosphere of Edolus, Shepard detailed her team. "Alright, ladies. I hope you slept well and ate a big breakfast, we have an Alliance distress signal to investigate. Going through my omni-tool for helpful information, a personal notification popped up to remind me that this is probably Rear Admiral Kahoku's lost recon team. All he told me was that they were somewhere in Artemis Tau, and this is the first we've seen of anything remotely Alliance. Joker and I have no idea what caused the emergency, and we have no idea what we're getting ourselves into, so be prepared for anything. Tali, I want you to man the machine gun. Williams, you get the cannon. It needs time to cool down between shots, so make them count. I'll drive and control the mass effect thrusters. Any questions?"

"If we exit the Mako, are there any environmental hazards we need to be aware of?" asked Williams.

"No. It's a dry, dusty, desert planet with a just below-freezing average temperature and a breathable atmosphere. Its gravity is a little less that one G. Well, I guess there are meteor impacts more frequently here than other planets, but we shouldn't be here long enough for that to matter. Any other questions?"

"What will we do with the soldiers once we find them?" asked Tali.

"I guess that just depends on what the problem is. If necessary, we will transport them up to the Normandy and carry them back to the Citadel after we find Dr. T'soni in this Cluster. This Mako can hold at least five more people, but I don't know how many were in the missing team."

"Understood, Shepard," answered Tali in a subdued tone.

Shepard turned back to the control board and activated the external cameras. The HUD showed the cargo bay door still closed. "How much longer, Joker?" she asked through her helmet's radio.

"Thirty seconds, Shepard. Good luck down there," he answered.

"Acknowledged. Shepard out."

She gripped the handles of the steering mechanism firmly, and exhaled a large breath. The cargo bay door slowly dropped open, making a ramp into the open air. "Here we go," she said to no one in particular, and drove forward into the sky. The drop was textbook, her maneuvers adequate, aiming for the small dot pinging on her screen. The Mako landed farther away than Shepard would have liked, but this would give them a chance to sneak up on the situation, as much as a giant six-wheeled ground vehicle could be stealthy. She propelled it forward, driving in a straight line to her target, ignoring any outcroppings or boulders in her way.

It made for a bumpy ride, and Tali was thankful for her harness. "Uh, Shepard, don't you think it would be better to drive around the rocks instead of over them?" she asked as the vehicle rocked violently side to side.

"This thing was made to deal with difficult terrain. I'm just making sure I get all the use I can out of it," she replied. Tali wasn't sure, but it sounded like Shepard was grinning behind her helmet. She looked over at Ashley, who just shrugged. Familiar with this human body language, Tali repeated it, and then returned her focus to her own HUD, preparing to shoot if necessary.

As the Mako made its way over a rocky hill, they could see something in the distance, sitting in the middle of a wide, flat basin. As they drove closer, they could see it was a ground vehicle similar to theirs, but no tents or structures had been erected anywhere nearby. Just as they noticed that the things they had taken for rocks or sacks of supplies were in fact unmoving bodies scattered around, the ground began to shake and an enormous worm-like creature erupted from the ground directly in front of them. It let an ear-piercing shriek burst out of its gaping mouth that was surrounded by long thin mandibles, and then turned towards them.

"Oh shit! A thresher maw!" shouted Shepard as she launched the Mako forward, narrowly avoiding a giant acid ball the creature had spat at them. "Williams, shoot that cannon at it as often as you can! Tali, while the cannon is cooling down between shots, give it all you've got with the machine gun! I'll drive close enough that it stays in the same spot, and try to avoid the acid. It's going to be rough, just focus on your job and nothing else! We can do this!"

Williams and Tali yelled in the affirmative as Shepard drove directly towards the thresher maw, keeping its attention, while her team members kept up a continual assault on the monster. When she felt she was close enough to the behemoth, but far enough away from the recon team's remains to leave them undisturbed, she turned the Mako so that its side was facing the thresher maw. As the land leviathan spewed acid at them, she was able to drive either forwards or backwards to avoid the deadly saliva, but still allow Williams and Tali nearly constant direct aim.

The maw eventually tired of their onslaught and retreated back underground. A few moments later, it reappeared farther away and to the right. As Shepard shot the Mako towards it as fast as she could, she didn't have time to swerve and avoid an acid ball. The vehicle took a direct hit, but Shepard plowed on, gritting her teeth behind her helmet. As a second one sailed their way, she smashed the thrusters to make the Mako jump sideways, knocking Williams' cannon shot off target. She could hear Williams growl in frustration behind her, and she threw back, "Sorry," as she skidded the Mako sideways to use the same tactics as before. The acid had burned straight through their shields and began slowly eating away at the metal paneling, dripping down onto the tires, which were already in bad shape from driving through other puddles of the vile green slime.

She reversed the Mako, so narrowly avoiding a glob of acid that when it splashed off the ground, it splattered all over the underside. With the shields already gone, this meant the corrosive goo began immediately disintegrating the suspension and the front most axle. The more damage the vehicle took, the harder it was to control, and the more hits it took. Warning lights and emergency beeps began on Shepard's screen, but she just ignored them for the moment, doing the best she could to keep them out of harm's way. When the moment presented itself, she yelled, "Tali! I need you to do what you can to repair the Mako. I know there's not a lot you can get to from in here, but do your best. Williams, you're going to have to man both the gun and the cannon for a few. Hopefully, this thing is almost dead."

"Aye aye," they said together, and got to work. Their shots didn't fire quite as quickly as they had with two people shooting, but some of the warning lights stopped flashing. As the thresher maw disappeared again back down its hole, Tali returned to her seat and strapped herself in, glad to be returning to the buckles that would hold her relatively still.

"I did what I could, Shepard. I'm not very familiar with vehicles like this one, unfortunately," Tali said.

"I understand. I don't know anything about them either. Good work, you two, but we're not done yet. The tires are about half melted, and the front suspension is shot, so I'm going to have to use the thrusters more often, which will make aiming more difficult. I'll yell every time right before we go airborne, alright?" Shepard hollered over her shoulder as they felt and saw the thresher maw rise up from the ground near the original place it had appeared. She slammed on the accelerator, hoping that this would be the last round.

As she neared, she did not orient herself with the side of the Mako facing the colossus as before, instead pointing the nose at it to make a smaller target. Since she would be relying on the thrusters instead of the wheels to move them side to side, this would be the better option. As soon as they got in range, Williams and Tali began firing again, smoothly alternating to create an unceasing barrage of firepower. Shepard watched a ball of acid fly right towards them out of the screaming cavity of the thresher maw, and tensed, waiting until the last possible moment to leap them into the air.

"Jumping!" she yelled as she hit the thrusters and jerked the Mako sideways. Tali fired the gun a moment too long, missing, but no cannon shot was wasted. As they landed, some of the acid splashed on the side of the Mako, but not much. Williams fired her cannon, a direct hit in the open mouth of the creature. It shrieked more loudly than before, and spat another glob at them. Tali was again firing the machine gun as Shepard shouted, "Jumping!" but she stopped more quickly this time.

More warning lights began to flash in front of Shepard. "I guess all this jumping isn't so great on the messed up suspension. But I think we're close! It seems more pissed off now than it did before. Just a few more good hits should do it!"

Williams nodded, even though no one could see. That last hit to the back of the throat seemed to do more damage than the rest of them, so she focused her next one there, again hitting her target. The beast screamed in fury and writhed in the air, flailing its head around. Tali did what she could to damage it while the cannon cooled down. Williams focused her weapon again, following the head of the thresher maw. "C'mon, c'mon," she mumbled to herself, waiting for the perfect shot. The massive creature refocused its attention on them, and opened its mouth to spew another chunk of acid at them. Before it could, Williams pounded her button and the cannon fired, directly into its gaping maw. It shrieked distressingly one last time, and slid back into the ground, never to appear again.

Everyone let out a pent up breath, and took a moment to leave the focus of battle. "Good job, you guys," Shepard said as she slowly turned the Mako around, and gingerly headed back to what was left of Admiral Kahoku's recon team. As they got near, she stopped the vehicle, and undid her harness. Tali and Williams followed suit, and they all climbed out together to investigate.

Shepard headed to the beacon to see if any more information about the emergency was available, and also to shut it off. She found it highly unlikely that there would be any survivors. Williams was checking the bodies and collecting dog tags, and once Tali saw what she was doing, joined in. When Shepard inspected the transmitter she noticed something odd in the code. She dug a little deeper into the program, and her suspicions were confirmed. She accessed her omni-tool to copy the information from the beacon before she pulled out her pistol and shot it until it stopped flashing. She shot it a few more times after that for good measure. Then she holstered her gun and stiffly walked back to her team members, her hands clenched in fists at her sides.

"Are all the tags collected? Any survivors?" Shepard asked in a cold, emotionless voice.

"Yes, and no," answered Williams. "We found ten bodies, none in the Grizzly."

Shepard nodded and said, "Let's head back to the Mako and signal Joker for pick up. We're done here." She turned and walked away, her back rigid with bottled rage.

While they waited, the Mako filled with palpable tension. Shepard had removed her helmet, little wisps of hair sticking to her forehead with sweat that was quickly drying. Ashley had removed hers as well, but Tali, obviously, had not.

"Shepard, it might not be any of our business, but what did you find when you checked out that transmitter? It must've been something big," asked Ashley.

Shepard let out a sigh and dropped her shoulders. "The beacon was a trap. I'm not sure who placed it, but they meant for those soldiers to die from that thresher maw. They put it there purposely; it wasn't Admiral Kahoku's team's distress signal. My guess is that they picked up the signal, came to investigate it like we did, and then were wiped out before they could make it back into the dubious protection of their Grizzly. I copied all the information I could off of it so I can do more detailed research later. I have a hunch who it was that did this, but I'm not certain enough to say with confidence."

The team remained quiet for the rest of the time on the planet, and exited the Mako out into the cargo bay with a subdued air around them. Ashley and Tali dumped their weapons onto the worktable to be checked later, and removed their armour by the lockers, to be looked over and cleaned first. Shepard watched them get to work in silence, and started to head to the elevator, still in full gear. She stopped and turned back towards them.

"You guys performed excellently today, both with each other, and while I was jumping us all over the place. I am proud to have people that I can trust, people such as you, at my back. Good work," she said quietly, but with conviction. Then she turned back around to head up to her cabin to clean her own armour and weapons, not that they really needed it. It was the Mako that actually required help. She looked at it from the elevator before the door slid shut, noting its melted tires, peeling paint and cratered sheet metal, and the occasional spark sputtering from various locations. Thresher maws were bad for equipment, apparently.

After notifying the proper authorities on where to retrieve the bodies of the lost soldiers, she sat on her cabin floor in her tank top and shorts, cleaning her armour and weapons. They didn't really need it, but maintaining the equipment one's life depended on was exceedingly important, and it helped calm her nerves and focus her mind. She knew she still had to take care of the Mako, but she definitely wasn't mentally prepared for that challenging task. Even if she didn't have to do it herself, she'd still have to find someone to delegate the task to. She finished reassembling her last rifle, and leaned back against her bed, sighing.

Her team had missed lunch on their away mission, but it wasn't quite dinnertime, and Riela wasn't hungry enough to find a snack, or calm enough to face anyone yet. Her insides were still roiling over the trap that Cerberus had set. Well, Cerberus was just her most likely candidate. The little bit of research she had done months ago had only turned up individually written exposés of incrimination floating around on the extranet or conspiracy theories about them, but this fit right in with what those 'reports' had cited. With her Spectre clearance, she'd have the opportunity to uncover better information on them, whenever she next found the time to begin investigating.

She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, making it dirtier with a smear of grease, rather than cleaner. Her hair had mostly worked its way out of her usual bun, large strands of it hanging limply down around her face and on the back of her neck. She didn't care, she was getting ready to get in the shower. She was just making sure that Ashley and Tali- _Did quarians even take showers? __Unlikely__. What about cleaning the __exterior of their__ suits? A question for another time. _-just Ashley then, had all the hot water she wanted first.

A knock sounded on her door, and then it promptly whooshed open. Riela realized belatedly that she had not locked it upon entering. A large spine-headed figure in shining armour stood in her doorway, but did not enter.

"Shepard. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to open your door, I must have brushed the panel while I was trying to knock," Garrus said, as far as Riela could tell, genuinely.

"That's alright. I was just cleaning my equipment. What did you want, Vakarian?" She stood as she spoke, straightening her clothes and brushing herself off.

Still hovering in the doorway, he said, "I wanted to see-" Shepard cut him off abruptly.

"Don't stand out there, come in if you want to talk," she said, waving him forward.

Garrus took a few steps, so that he was just far enough past the threshold that the door closed behind him, before resuming his sentence. "I wanted to see how the mission went. The Mako looks like you really don't appreciate it. What did that poor machine ever do to you?"

Shepard smirked wryly, one corner of her mouth twitching up for a moment. "It wasn't personal, just an unfortunate casualty of war. There was an unexpected thresher maw." Then her mouth pressed firmly into a line, and Garrus could see that her eyes went hard right before she redirected them at the floor.

Unsure of what to say to put her in a better mood, he skipped all the quippy lines in his head and instead offered, "I could fix it for you. I'm pretty handy with machinery."

Shepard's head jerked back up, her angry thoughts suddenly forgotten. "Could you really? Tali and I don't know anything about vehicles like those, and Ashley didn't say anything, so I don't think she does either. It seems unlikely that Wrex could fix it, or even fit underneath. In all the months with Kaidan on board, he's never mentioned any kind of automotive knowledge, and it's not in his files. Of course, the Mako's never been so badly damaged before. I looked at our inventory, and we do have equipment and spare parts for repairs, even new tires. It needs to be done, and soon, because we'll probably need it to get Dr. T'Soni, wherever she is." She knew she was rambling, but this was a huge weight off her mind.

"Anything you need, Shepard. I'll always be right behind you."

_D__ammit Riela, d__o NOT think dirty thoughts. That is not what he meant, and you know it. He is NOT interested in you. They probably don't do it __in that position__, anyway. Augh! Focus! You are practically in your underwear, alone in your room together, and it means nothing. NOTHING!_

Shepard busied herself with her weapons, picking them up off the floor and placing them on her little table, while her mind went temporarily haywire. And she'd been doing so well too, for the minute that led up to those thoughts. She couldn't bring herself to meet his brilliant blue eyes, afraid hers would betray her imprudent, _unprofessional_ thoughts. Keeping her eyes focused on the armour she was moving from the haphazard pile in the middle of the room to a slightly less haphazard pile in her locker, she answered, "Thanks, Vakarian. That would be a really big help to me. To all of us." She steeled herself after all the armour was moved, and met his gaze, a smile plastered on her face. The way his head was quirked to the side made her think he was curious, or confused. "Was there anything else you needed?" she tried to ask calmly.

"No," he answered, his sub-vocals flanging a strange, slightly discordant pitch.

"Then I guess I'll see you at dinner. Hopefully, I'll look less like the mess I do now. A shower would probably help. And a uniform." Outwardly, she was smiling, trying to keep things lighthearted, tucking a few strands of hair behind her ears, but inwardly she was ripping her tongue out of her mouth and stomping it into the carpet of her room with her bare foot for its foolish, irrepressible words. _Don't __draw attention to __your state of undress__!_

"Y-y-yes," he said slowly. "I'll see you at dinner."

"See you at dinner!" she repeated, too cheerfully, too forced. His back was already turned, leaving her cabin.

"Not good. Not good," she mumbled to herself after he was gone, pacing around her room frantically. "Why can't I keep control of myself? What is going on with me?" she said louder, exasperated. She ran her fingers through her hair, destroying what was left of her bun, her sweat-dried hair falling thick around her shoulders and nearly halfway down her back. "Let's focus on the positives. I lasted a whole minute this time before something stupid happened to my brain. And the Mako will be taken care of by someone who knows what they're doing. And I'm talking out loud to myself now, so I won't have to waste any of my time trying to convince people I'm crazy, they'll be able to tell right away!"

She shut her mouth so hard her teeth clicked when they hit, refusing to let anymore incriminating sounds gush forth. She decisively stalked to her bathroom and turned on her shower, stripping away her greasy clothes to leave in a pile on the floor of her room before letting the door slide shut. She stepped into the steaming water and scrubbed her body furiously, trying her hardest to wash the outside in an attempt to affect the inside; trying to wash the thoughts away that plagued her mind and body every time a certain blue-eyed turian came within line of sight.

As she lathered her hair, she thought, _I need to do something to keep my mind off of the impossible. Obviously this isn't going to go awa__y by just ignoring it__. Maybe if I focus my pent up sexual energy- is that even what this is? -on someone else..._ she let that thought drift for a moment. _No, that's impossible. Anyone on this ship, __**under my command**__, is off limits, and I've never been __interested in__ one-night stands. __I think maybe I'll just try sticking to a mantra. Every time I see him, I'll just tell myself 'It's never going to happen' __over and over. __That's just going to have to do. _She nodded once to herself, a final motion to seal her new decision into permanence, and resolutely rinsed her hair.

–-

Garrus left Shepard's cabin a little hurt, but mostly bewildered. It seemed like no matter what effort he put forth to be friendly, she was still anxious and edgy around him. And he couldn't figure out why, other than that he was a turian. He'd been watching her closely all the days they'd been on the Normandy together, and she'd gotten along well with the other non-humans, particularly Tali. She didn't seem to have the same reactions to them that she had towards him, and it wedged his plates.

That first day when they'd met, and later fought side by side playing their little sniper game, he'd put her reactions down to performance stress. But they'd continued, even aboard this peaceful vessel. Why did her heart rate jump and then speed whenever she was around him? Why did her temperature rise, if only slightly, and her breathing become more shallow and quickened? Why did she avoid meeting his gaze so frequently? It had to be fear and nervousness.

He could hear her talking out loud to herself in there as he walked away, saying, "Not good. Not good. Why can't I keep control of myself? What is going on with me?"

What was that, if not proof? He'd picked up similar reactions from other humans, both on this vessel and back at the Citadel, but never this strong or persistent. The great Commander Shepard, scared of turians because of the Relay 314 Incident. He shook his head at the irony of it all as he headed to the battery to retrieve his tools so he could work on the Mako a little before dinnertime.

The strange part of it all was that she didn't try to avoid him, and even laughed at his awful jokes. She seemed to actually like them, and felt completely authentic in her laughter. She had no problem at all bantering back and forth with him, trying to out do his successes with her own. From all outward appearances, she wasn't in the least bit sensitive towards him or his kind. If it wasn't for his turian hearing and his visor, he'd never know anything was wrong at all. _She does a good job keeping her true feelings hidden from her crew_, he thought. _She probably thinks she's keeping them from me, too. _He could respect her for that; leading them as they should be lead, not allowing her emotions to cloud her judgment.

She was the kind of leader he'd been looking for his whole life; honourable, team-driven, focused on the goal, full of strength of will and conviction. So why this problem with turians? Her militaristic ways and theirs blended so perfectly, she could have grown up on Palaven among them and fit right in, excluding her physical appearance.

As the elevator took him slowly down to the ruined Mako, his mind continued to fixate on this one person, so vastly different from anyone, human or otherwise, that he had ever met. If he admitted it to himself, he'd been spending more and more of his personal time focused on her. He'd never seen eyes as bright as any turian's on a human before, especially not green ones. He couldn't be sure, he'd never studied humans that closely, but in his experience, humans that had a darker skin tone always had dark eyes that went with it. Was her genetic sequence rare, or just rare outside of Earth? Had she somehow permanently altered it to be more aesthetically pleasing to humans? That combination would definitely be pleasing in a turian. She was just so unusual! His days as a C-Sec detective had ingrained in him a desire to unravel every mystery uncovered, and Shepard was nothing if not a mystery. That was alright, he had the training to go along with the compulsion, and he finally came to the decision that he was going to use it.


	7. Chapter 6 - Therum

**A/N: BioWare owns the Mass Effect Universe. Finally, we get to the first real mission as a Spectre. I hope you guys didn't mind the wait. I try to balance my story between the personal interaction aspects and the action pieces. This chapter is a little shorter than I usually aim for, but I like how it ends, so this update gets two chapters instead of one, woo! Let me know what you guys think, I am always eager to hear from my readers. Thank you to all the new followers, to the followers who have been around, and to anyone who reviewed or commented or PMed me. I love you guys!**

Chapter 6 – Therum

After the excitement of Edolus, planet scanning resumed its normal, boring aspects. They scanned the final planet of that system, and then headed out to Knossos, the last one in the Artemis Tau cluster. Dr. Liara T'soni had to be there somewhere. The interim allowed Garrus to repair the Mako, and Shepard had to admit that he'd done an excellent job. He'd somehow even managed to find paint and re-detailed it; it looked good as new, and she told him so.

She'd went down and checked on him occasionally, and each time had led to his mocking her driving skills, something he'd never really witnessed for himself, which made the jibes that much funnier. He also had mentioned so many ways to improve the Mako that Shepard finally granted him all powers of decision regarding the vehicle while it was on the Normandy. Anything involving away missions was still her call.

She tried to follow along the explanations of his upgrades, but he talked to her as if she already knew the basics, which she didn't, so most of it went over her head. She was genuinely interested, but just didn't have the time to learn this branch of mechanics. What she did gather was that the next time she drove the Mako, it would be like a completely different, superior vehicle. Mostly, she was excited for that to be true, but a little part of her was hoping that Garrus was exaggerating his skills so she could poke fun at his downfalls like he'd been doing to her these past few days. Turnabout was fair play.

Finally, after scanning almost all the planets of the Knossos system, they found something. Therum, the second planet out from the sun, was giving off very strange readings. According to Joker, they were off the chart and coming from somewhere underground. He also mentioned that a signature similar to one from Eden Prime was being picked up, which they now recognized as a marker for geth. Due to rivers of lava coursing over the surface of the planet, the Mako had to be dropped off quite a bit away from where the nexus of the signal was located.

On the planet, Shepard steered the Mako carefully around the lava, until they had to take out two large geth armatures that a geth dropship placed in their path, with Alenko and Vakarian controlling the guns. The thrusters reacted much more quickly now, thanks to the upgrades, so Shepard relied on those to avoid anything that flew their way. Continuing their meandering path to their objective, they eventually came across a large closed gate guarded by three turrets. Luckily, there was a small side route on the right, which they took instead.

Another turret was planted there, which exploded from an excellent shot fired by Vakarian on the cannon, and some geth rocket troopers were mowed down by Alenko with the machine gun. Behind the gate, a large number of geth ran around, but eventually they were all felled. They got out of the Mako briefly to reconnoiter, and discovered that they had to drop a gate identical to the one they had just driven around to continue. After the way was opened, they got back in the Mako and proceeded forward.

Orange lava flowed slowly by on this side of the gate too, which Shepard avoided. They destroyed two more geth armatures before they came to a manufactured tunnel guarded by the largest geth machine they had yet seen. Shepard tried to keep the Mako behind some large piles of fallen rock for cover, but that made aiming the weapons mounted on top difficult. She realized she was just going to have to face the colossus down and rely on the thrusters again, the roadway being to narrow for any serious maneuvers. It was a fairly long fight, and Shepard's muscles were tense with strain by the time it exploded in a shower of blue sparks and slumped in a heap of wires and fabricated plates.

They took a moment to gather themselves and check over the Mako, Vakarian making any repairs that were necessary, which weren't many, or particularly bad. Shepard rolled her shoulders and stretched her neck side to side in an attempt to ease the tension, then shook out her hands and wrists before gripping the steering handles again. She drove them up into the tunnel which wound its way around before coming out again in the open. Geth guarded this side of the tunnel too, but only two puny rocket launchers. After that colossus, anything seemed puny. They went down easily, and the team went on.

They made their way in and out of a second tunnel, running over a few more geth along the way. There they had to stop and continue on foot, the only way through being a narrow cleft between two rocks. Shepard readied her sniper rifle and omni-tool while Vakarian equipped his assault rifle and omni-tool, and Alenko checked over his pistol, blue biotic electricity tracing over his body in waves. When all were prepared, Shepard motioned for Alenko to take the lead, followed by Vakarian, with herself bringing up the rear.

As they started to take fire from the enemy, Shepard ducked behind a rock for cover. She prepared her Overload program on her omni-tool, found a target and let it loose. The geth's shields went down, and she took it out with a well placed sniper round to the head. She leaped over her cover and found another rock to hide behind. Surveying her surroundings, she noticed a red laser sight coming from the top of a tower across the basin. She took aim through her scope, and brought down the geth sniper quickly before checking on her team mates who were farther down the slope. They seemed in good condition, Alenko Throwing a group of geth in the air while he and Vakarian wiped them out with their guns.

A couple geth stragglers were coming up on them, and Shepard used Sabotage on one, overheating him before sniping the other. Then she went back and shot the one she'd left standing, unable to move while his circuits fried. _That's four_, she thought to herself; keeping track was a main focus of hers while in the field with Vakarian. It would be foolish to yell it out and give away her position, but she'd keep him updated anyway, telling him when she got the chance.

They regrouped and double-checked their surroundings before climbing back out of the hollow, taking a path on their right. It curved up and around the top of the giant hole they'd just come out of before leading north to some old structures. In the distance, she could see a ramp leading up to a thick circular door into the side of a mountain. She checked her omni-tool for the signal Joker had mentioned, and it seemed to be coming from almost directly beneath her. This looked to be the place.

It also looked to be the place for an ambush, so they all reloaded their weapons and continued ahead slowly. Shepard thought she saw something leap or fall through the air underneath a catwalk, but before she could investigate, a geth dropship practically landed right in front of them, and a group of geth jumped down. There were a few armed with rocket launchers, a couple with sniper rifles, two very fast geth that hardly looked mechanical at all with no weapons, and a geth armature. It unfolded from the ball form it had dropped down in, and towered over the humans and the turian on four legs.

As they could see energy building in front of its headlight, they all ran for cover behind some crates to the left. If they didn't take out the two-legged enemies quickly, they would be pinned down and surrounded. She peeked out from behind her crate, rapidly taking in the positions of the geth. The ones that looked like they were made of muscle instead of paneling had disappeared, one sniper was untargetable behind a crate, one was going for cover to her far right, a position that would allow it to hit them where they were, and the three rocket launchers were out in the open aiming for them. The armature released its blue ball of energy, and she ducked back as it sheared along the edge of her crate and past her head, centimeters from her face.

She decided the sniper would be her first target. It was going to put them in the most immediate danger, but was equipped with low shields so one shot should take it down just like the last one. She tracked it through her scope as it ran, calculating her shot. She squeezed her trigger at the right moment, and the sniper spun around from the force of the impact before sprawling in the dirt. She could feel Alenko and Vakarian at her back, firing their weapons around the other side of the crate, but didn't turn to look; there wasn't any time.

She readied her Overload and released it at one of the geth firing rockets, one that was taking assault rifle damage from Vakarian. With its shields gone, it was down quickly, but Shepard didn't waste time watching, she'd already moved onto another, hitting it with Sabotage. While it stood there frozen, she fired two shots one right after the other into its head. As it crumpled, she caught the shine of a red laser sight through her scope as it focused on her helmet. Without thinking, she followed it to its source and fired smoothly, not stopping to aim. She was so practiced with her rifle that her aim was true without conscious thought, and the second sniper went down without getting off a shot.

Shepard ducked back behind cover to check on her duo and reload. By her count, one rocket trooper was left, the two hoppers, and of course the giant armature. Another one of its crackling energy balls flew past her cover just as she thought that. It was a good thing it took so much time to warm up before it could fire. Alenko had one of the hoppers in the air with his biotics and was shooting it with its pistol. The other lay dead on the top of their crate; Shepard could see one of its arms dangling over right above her head. She looked around Alenko to Vakarian who was reloading his assault rifle calmly. She didn't hear any enemy weapon-fire, so the other rocket launcher must be down. That left the armature.

Alenko let the hopper drop to the ground, dead. He reloaded his pistol and waited for his biotics to recharge. Another pulse from the armature flew between him and Vakarian, missing. Shepard checked her omni-tool, and her Overload and Sabotage programs were both ready for use. Her team mates looked to her, nodding their readiness and waiting for her signal. She held up a fist and counted to three on it, at which point they all ducked their heads around cover to fire on the giant geth.

Shepard let loose with her Overload immediately followed by her Sabotage before taking aim with her rifle. The machine was too far away for Alenko to use biotics on it, so he just concentrated on his pistol. Vakarian let out a steady stream of fire from his assault rifle. The target was so large, aim wasn't such a focus, and a lower accuracy weapon would do alright. Shepard fired multiple shots at its headlight before her Sabotage wore off and it readied another shot from its pulse cannon.

They all ducked back into cover and reloaded their weapons, whether they needed it or not. Shepard's tech skills weren't cooled off enough yet to use, so her bullets were just going to have to finish the job. The armature's shot flew past, and they all poked back out from cover together. While Shepard was taking aim, she saw through her scope the armature get hit by a Sabotage that wasn't hers. _Vakarian_, she thought. It was a reasonable assumption, he was very good with his omni-tool. He must have been using it on all his targets and Shepard just hadn't caught it until now. Just one more skill they had in common. She fired her sniper at the headlight while Alenko stayed steady with his pistol, and Vakarian returned to his rifle. With three people firing on it at once, the automaton was soon done for.

They all stood up and took a moment to catch their breath, regrouping. Shepard strolled out into the open, trailed by Alenko and Vakarian. She was studying the mountain the walkway led up to, and something about it reminded her of volcanoes she had seen pictures of. Her head was tilted to the side, eyes squinting up behind her helmet's visor, her right hand on her hip and her left holding her rifle down by her side. Alenko placed himself back and to the right of her, but Vakarian walked on up to stand next to her on the left.

Before he could say anything, she said without turning her head, "Anything in the Mako doesn't count, and neither does that last armature. Those were team kills."

"You'll take any advantage to come out ahead," Vakarian snarked, but secretly agreed.

"Advantages like my superior skills with a sniper rifle and tech programs? You're right." She turned her head and looked up at him. For once, she didn't hate her helmet hiding her face from view, or his. If she couldn't see his cerulean eyes, maybe she could keep herself under better control. And if he couldn't see hers, she wouldn't have to avoid his gaze and turn away.

"Speaking of which, you should show me that program of yours that drops enemy shields. That's a very useful one to have," he said.

"What? You mean you don't have that one?" she asked with mock surprise. "I guess that's just to my...advantage," she said grinning.

"Well, when you put it that way, I'd better not get it for myself. How else will you keep up with me?" Vakarian asked.

Shepard scoffed good-naturedly at this. "I don't need to cheat to win. When we get back to the ship, I'll give you all my offensive tech programs. But what will you give me in return?"

"Fixing the Mako isn't worth enough to balance out?" he said, pretending to be indignant.

"No!" she scoffed. "You volunteered for that. It doesn't count, besides the fact that it's already been given and you can't give it again."

"Oh, with your driving skills, or lack, I'm sure that opportunity will present itself sooner rather than later."

Shepard gasped. "Hey! I'm not that bad! The ground is rocky!"

Alenko stepped forward and cleared his throat. "Sorry Shepard, but he's right. I've been with you plenty of times to know that this time wasn't a fluke. I eat stomach settlers before every mission when I know you're going to drive."

Shepard was speechless for a moment, looking back and forth between her two helmeted team mates. She couldn't tell how much they were saying was an exaggeration, and how much was true. "I don't have to listen to this. We have an asari doctor to find."

She turned and stalked away, walking to the gangway without looking back. Alenko and Vakarian looked at each other and started to chuckle together.

"Looks like we found a sore spot," Alenko said.

"Yes," said Vakarian still laughing quietly, watching Shepard stomp away, little puffs of dust rising in the air after every footstep. He started after her, quickening his pace to meet up before she reached the door, Alenko close behind.

The giant circular door opened onto a metal tunnel lit at regular intervals with blue-white light strips. Shepard kept the lead, walking as quietly as she could, her rifle at her shoulder, but not looking through the scope. Alenko put a Barrier up around himself, both hands on his pistol that was trained over Shepard's right shoulder. Vakarian was in a similar pose on her left.

She caught movement ahead and signaled a stop. She looked through her scope and targeted a geth trooper that hadn't noticed them yet. She steadied herself and took the kill. Then, knowing her shot had alerted any other nearby enemies, she rushed forward to where the geth had been and the tunnel opened up. She pressed herself against the left side as a geth below fired up at them. Alenko and Vakarian opened fire on it as Shepard took aim through her scope. Her shot that went perfectly through the center of its headlight ended its quasi-life.

"Two for me," she said, heading down the metal grated floor, not looking back. She reloaded her rifle without missing a step, walking down from landing to landing. The tunnel dead ended into an elevator, which they took down. It started to spark and shudder, a squealing shriek coming from the friction of the elevator and the shaft. Then it came to a halting stop. Luckily, the mechanical safeties held and it didn't plummet them to their deaths. They pried the door open and jumped down the few feet to the next level. Maybe it wouldn't have plummeted them to their deaths after all.

As Shepard jumped down to the next level, she could hear a feminine voice calling for help. It sounded like it was far away, or coming through water. She looked around and saw an asari floating trapped in a bubble of some sort behind a blue barrier. Her arms and legs were spread wide, clearly unable to be moved. Shepard removed her helmet and walked up to the barrier. She touched it, and though it didn't hurt her, she couldn't get through either.

"Help! Please, you've got to help me!" called the asari through the barrier, her large blue eyes wide with fear.

"Are you Dr. Liara T'Soni?" Shepard asked.

"Yes! Please, you've got to help me. Geth showed up with a krogan leading them. I think they were here to capture me! I activated these Prothean barriers to keep them out, but I must have hit something I wasn't supposed to, and now I'm trapped!" Her voice was hysterical with a thin veneer of control.

"Calm down, Dr. T'Soni. We'll help you get free. I have some questions to ask you, but now is obviously not the time. Will you answer them once you're safe?" Shepard asked with a low, soothing voice.

"Yes, anything! Thank you so much! But the controls are on this side of the barrier, and there's no way to get through them! The geth and the krogan have been trying for hours."

"I think we'll be able to come up with something. Don't worry, and try to stay calm," Shepard said, putting her helmet back on. She motioned for Alenko and Vakarian to follow her, and she headed down the metal planking to the rock and dirt-filled area below to see if she could find something useful. Her shields sizzled as they caught a bullet right before it hit her shoulder.

Immediately, she dove for cover nearby, and she could hear her team mates doing the same behind her. She popped her head over the crate and took aim with her omni-tool, releasing her Sabotage at one geth trooper while Vakarian did the same beside her. Alenko Threw the third into the air, and they all opened fire at their individual targets. Once the geth were eliminated, they investigated the surrounding area.

They found some salvage and some credits lying around, which they took for later use. Then Shepard came across the controls for a mining laser. Her face spread in a wicked grin that no one could see. She looked over her shoulder at her crew to make sure they were well back, and then got to work on the panel. Within a few short minutes, Shepard had the large piece of machinery up and running. She pointed it at the dirt wall beneath and to the side of where Liara was trapped, and fired it.

The laser bored a hole through to the other side in no time at all. Shepard shut it back off, and gleefully ran towards the clearing dust to check out her handiwork. Alenko and Vakarian looked at each other again, shook their heads at her antics, and followed at a more sedate pace.

Through the Shepard-made tunnel, there was a platform of some kind that did not look like the structures that had brought them down this far. It was Prothean. Shepard was already standing at a terminal, studying it. She made sure her duo was on the platform with her, then pushed a holo-button. The platform rose like an elevator and stopped at the next level, the one where Liara was trapped. Shepard removed her helmet before talking to the asari once again. She felt that people always reacted better to someone whose face they could see, as opposed to an emotionless helmet.

"You got through? But how?"

"We used the mining laser to blast a hole," Shepard said with a grin.

"Oh, yes. That makes sense," said Liara, stunned into calmness. "Please, help me get free before more geth appear! The controls over there should release me," she continued, her old anxiety returning.

Shepard walked over and looked for a moment, and then found the right button to press. She heard Liara hit the ground before she could turn back. When she did, Liara was dusting her hands off, looking no worse for the wear from being trapped by unfathomable ancient technology.

"Do you think that elevator will take us back up to the surface?" asked Vakarian.

"I think it will. It seems to have been built for that purpose, among others," answered the archeologist.

"Let's go, then," said Shepard. She put her helmet back on again, and walked over to the platform's control panel.

Liara followed, but stopped Shepard with a question. "What I don't understand is why the geth are after me to begin with. What are they even doing on this side of the Perseus Veil?"

Alenko answered before Shepard could. "An ex-Spectre named Saren is trying to find a Prothean piece of technology called the Conduit. He has the geth working for him. He probably heard you were an expert on them and has chased you down to force you to work for him as well."

"The Conduit? I've never heard or discovered anything that mentioned something like that. I don't even know what it is!" Liara said, looking from helmet to helmet for a better explanation.

"We don't know what it is either, except that it is Prothean," said Shepard.

"But how did he even hear about me? Almost none of my research has been published. I'm practically a laughing stock in asari archeological circles." Just then, a distant rumbling could be heard, and the platform shuddered under their feet. Liara continued, "These ruins are not stable. That laser must have triggered a seismic event. We must leave before the whole place caves in!" She worked at the platform controls while Shepard hailed the Normandy.

"Joker, do you read me? Lock onto my signal and be ready for pickup. Things are getting shaky down here!"

"Aye aye, Shepard. ETA eight minutes."

Vakarian's helmet turned towards Shepard. "Things are getting shaky down here? Very funny."

"I'm glad you liked it. I try to be as accurate as I can," she answered, a self-satisfied smile behind her helmet.

The platform rose smoothly all the way to the top. The party could see a small shaft of daylight through the passage in front of them, but as they started to walk towards it, the infamous krogan battlemaster and two geth shock troopers showed up from that direction. They stood blocking the way.

"Surrender. Or don't. That would be more fun," the krogan said.

"We don't have time for this," Shepard said under her breath. To the krogan, she said, "This place is coming down!"

"That makes the fight more exhilarating," he answered. Stepping closer, he said, "Thanks for getting rid of those barriers for us. Now hand the doctor over."

Liara, sounding quite firm for someone who was so close to panicking just a little while ago, said, "Whatever it is that you're after, you're not getting it from me."

"I think Dr. T'Soni would like to stay with us," Shepard said.

"Saren wants her. And what Saren wants, Saren gets," the krogan replied. "Kill them!" he said to the geth.

Shepard readied her rifle while shouting, "Alenko! Protect Liara! She has no weapons or armour, and that's who they're after!"

"Aye aye, Shepard!" he hollered back, already running towards the asari that was trying to hide behind the platform's console.

These geth soldiers were much faster than the ones they'd been fighting. Shepard tried to hit one with her Overload, but missed. She tried to hit the same one with her Sabotage, and it worked. While it was momentarily frozen, she took it out with two consecutive sniper shots through the headlight. She lowered her weapon and turned, trying to find the other one. Vakarian was working on the krogan, the last geth trying to flank him while his attention was elsewhere.

With both of her tech skills in cool down, she'd have to do it the old-fashioned way. She ran to the right, her back to the tunnel, trying to get into a good position to fire on the geth before it could attack the turian. She quickly aimed a shot at its chest to drop its shields and get its attention. When it turned to look at her, she shot it again through the head. While it staggered, something hit Shepard in the back of her head, which dropped her own shields and made her stumble.

"Shepard!" Alenko screamed through his Barrier he had up around himself and Liara.

She turned to look at him and saw him aim his pistol at something behind her. She turned quickly as Alenko shot, and saw a geth sniper hiding behind a crate part of the way down the hall. Alenko was at the wrong angle to hit it even though he tried, and couldn't reposition himself away from Liara. She aimed at the sniper that had brought down her shields, and squeezed the trigger. Her shot was a good one, and the geth fell out from behind cover, not moving.

She whirled back around to check on Vakarian and saw that he was no longer shooting at the krogan, but was just finishing off the geth she thought she had already killed. Shepard was instantly furious with herself for leaving him in danger from two enemies on either side, no matter what the reason was that her attention was drawn away. _So where was the krogan?_ She spun, trying to spot movement behind the mechanisms of the platform tower.

Too late, she heard a deafening roar behind her. She half-turned, mostly looking over her shoulder at the monstrosity barreling with impossible speed towards her. He smashed her to the ground with all his weight and fury. Her shields had already been deactivated by the geth, and she felt her light armour crunch into her left arm and torso, ribs snapping as she was flattened underneath him at an awkward angle on her side.

She didn't move as he climbed up off her, intent on killing another of her crew the same way, his battle fury completely in control. Dazed and fighting off the blackness at the edges of her vision, she tried to see what was happening. She slowly craned her head around, pain from the movement along her side and across chest making her almost lose consciousness. She gritted her teeth and fought it off, her focus on her team mates. It looked like Liara had her own Barrier up, and Alenko and Vakarian were facing down the krogan from either side of it. Alenko Threw it up into the air, and they continued to pelt it full of bullets. It came down dead.

Ominous rumbles could be heard far beneath Shepard's ear, down the platform shaft working their way up, accompanied by a severe vibration that shuddered into everything around them. Pieces of rock began to fall from the ceiling, and Shepard tried to move, crawl or drag herself or something, to safety, but rolling over made her black out.

"Get Liara! She's in shock!" she heard a double-toned voice say from nearby. How long she'd been unconscious, she didn't know, but probably only a few moments. Something was going on that required speed, but she couldn't remember what.

_ Why was everything shaking?_

She felt large, gentle hands roll her slowly over onto her back, and she blacked out again.

She blinked her eyes as cool air touched her face, but couldn't quite make out the blurry shape moving right in front of it.

"Spirits, she_ is_ still alive," said the voice above her. It came out as a gasp, someone talking who was shocked or awed.

_Of course I'm still alive. Why wouldn't I be?_ she thought in a daze. The words in her mind floated by gently, carried on a breeze.

"Hang on, Shepard. We'll get you out of here. This is probably going to hurt," the bleary roundish silver shape said.

_That voice...I know that voice..._ "Garrus?" Shepard mumbled, barely a whisper. Then she thought, _What's going to hurt?_

A large strong arm worked its way under her shoulders as carefully as it could, while a second one went under her knees more easily. Shepard's breathing, already shallow, caught in her throat and came out a hiss.

_That does hurt,_ she thought. As the arms underneath her put pressure on her shoulder blades and back to lift her, she tried to scream, but only a whimper came out. Then, with more upward movement, blessed, blessed blackness overtook her for good.


End file.
